The goal of this interactive project is to give a general overview of major crimes inside the Atlanta city limits. Here are some guidelines to help you understand what is shown - and not shown – in the data.

DATA: The information provided is the most recent data on reported crimes submitted by the Atlanta Police Department to the APD database. The data is public information, and we have created a computer program that pulls the information from the database for public viewing.

TYPES OF CRIME: We have limited the data to seven categories that we consider to be the most serious. Four of these are considered violent – homicide, rape, aggravated assault and armed robbery; three are non-violent – larceny, burglary and auto theft. All but burglary are classified as felonies (burglaries reach felony status when the value of stolen property exceeds $500; less than $500 is a misdemeanor). The data listed isn’t necessarily all incidents in these categories that were reported to APD; these are only crimes submitted to the database by APD personnel.

MAPS: The maps follow the same format as APD’s basic precinct boundaries: seven major Zones, containing 78 specific Beats.

UPDATE FREQUENCY: APD does not have a consistent timeline for updating the data. Our computer program checks the APD database for updates nightly, and pulls in new submissions at that time. Often, APD will update their database in batches, sometimes only once a month. Generally, the crimes listed on the overall zone maps occurred in the past 30 days; the crimes listed on the beat pages occurred in the past 60 days. The historical trending charts date back to 2009, and include the latest monthly data supplied by APD.

OTHER AGENCIES: These crimes do not include reports made to campus police entities that operate within the city of Atlanta. For example, Georgia Tech and Georgia State University handle their own police reports. MARTA police reports are often included into APD data, but not always.

FUTURE GOALS: We hope to widen the scope of this project beyond Atlanta’s city limits. We believe the public has a right to know as much as possible about their communities, particularly in matters of public safety.