New Downtown Landscape Means Less Crime

By Brian Gierok

As more and more people move into downtown Athens, it would only make sense that the crime rates would also increase alongside it. However, over the past few years it has actually began to decrease. There is no particular reason as to why this is happening, but the one thing that is for sure is that security around the downtown area is increasing with every new apartment complex being built. This includes new card readers to enter the buildings and also more security cameras that help deter crime from happening. This complements the security cameras that are already in the downtown area that the ACCPD installed back in 2005 and are continuing to install to this day.

An Athens-Clarke County police cruiser sits outside of the downtown precinct where recent numbers show that part one crimes have been decreasing over the past two years.

These are the CCTV cameras that the Athens-Clarke County Police Department installed in 2005 in an effort to deter and record crime in the Downtown area.

Here is a video that helps to describe the downward trend of part one crimes occurring in the downtown area and a few reasons as to why this is happening.