One month into his new position as Cobb County’s Chief of Police, Stuart Vanhoozer, is honest about the situation he’s inherited.
“What we saw after COVID was a sharp increase in violent crime," he said. "Personal crimes, crimes of passion, crimes that involve a relationship went through the roof."
Violent crimes like homicides, rapes and assaults have been steadily increasing since 2019, according to statistics the department released to 11Alive.
NOTE: The statistics in the dataset below reflect crimes from the same timeframe (January 1st-June 1st) of each year.
Vanhoozer said most of the violent crimes they've seen recently were committed by repeat offenders, and between people who knew each other.
“We have what we call VIPER, which is our violent crime intervention program. That group has set record after record the last two years in removing illegal firearms involved in illegal activity," he said.
To get more violent offenders off the streets, the Cobb County Police Department has rolled out several technologies, like license plate readers that automatically scan the plates of cars that pass by police vehicles.
Dash camera video the department provided to 11Alive, shows the reader recently clocking a stolen car that passed an officer. Police were able to apprehend the driver, who was wanted in Nashville for murder.
In another May incident, the technology alerted an officer that a wanted carjacker and escaped federal prisoner were driving by.
“He would never have known it," Vanhoozer explained. "The officer was able to capture him singlehandedly very quickly.”
The chief added that they have data to prove their efforts are working.
"We like to measure, we like to see if what we're doing makes a difference," he said.
Robbery, burglary, and car break ins are all down more than 20% since 2019, even with a growing population.
And Vanhoozer pointed out that stranger-to-stranger crime also is down.
"We're not seeing anything super disturbing if you compare to last year or the year before that," he said.
“Even though homicides were up for the last two years, they solved 96% of the homicides in Cobb County versus about a 50 something percent nationally," Vanhoozer explained.
The Chief said they'll continue to double down their efforts to address violent crime, and get violent offenders off the streets.
“There are some innovative things that we have done and that we will definitely continue to do," he said. This is our home. Our children are here. Our families are here. Our friends are here. We will concentrate on the safety of our citizens and we will not waver on that."
One of the most significant crime trends in Cobb County is good news: when comparing the first half of each year, between 2019 and June 2022, robberies decreased 58%.