What is behind a huge drop in the murder rate this year? – By Patrik Jonsson (CS Monitor) / June 9, 2023
Last summer, Atlanta Police Department Capt. Ralph Woolfolk accepted a devastating truth: Far too many Atlantans were killing each other, and they weren’t letting up.
As murder rates spiked in 2020 and remained at levels not seen since the early 1990s, Captain Woolfolk, the head of the city’s homicide division, hatched a plan.
On an early July 2022 evening, a new task force fanned out across the city for the first time. The mission of Operation Heatwave was to use crime data and word on the street not just to identify trouble spots but also to pinpoint residents at particular risk of engaging in gun violence.
Spanning various agencies, the unit had a dual purpose: a hard line on “guns, gangs, and drugs,” but a gentler side, too. On every corner, the word went out: If you are not participating in the drug and gun trade, you will not be a target of stepped-up police activities. The central goal was to build trust – working with the community to lessen fear and improve life.
