Sandy Springs reduced vehicle break-ins by having more officers on the streets, police chief Ken DeSimone told the city council during its annual retreat.
The Sandy Springs City Council heard DeSimone’s report during its two-day retreat at Sandy Springs City Hall on Feb. 5 and 6. His report said entering autos dropped to 343 incidents in 2024. That was down from 613 in 2023 and 545 in 2022.
The number of general thefts and burglaries rose. Vehicle theft was slightly down, as were robberies.
- General theft: 915 (2024); 858 (2023)
- Entering auto: 343 (2024); 613 (2023)
- Burglary: 217 (2024); 200 (2023)
- Vehicle theft: 154 (2024); 184 (2023)
- Aggravated assault: 105 (2024); 79 (2023)
- Robbery: 14 (2024) 33 (2023)
- Rape: 18 (2024); 19 (2023)
- Murder: 3 (2024); 5 (2023)
Officers initiated more than half of their 106,280 calls for service, DeSimone said. The other 40,648 came from 911 calls. The ratio is usually 50/50, but last year more police officers were on the street.
“Our pursuits have gone way up, especially at night time, and that’s just because we have the officers out on night patrol, and they’re catching these people either in the act or shortly after they have, or coming from other jurisdictions through Sandy Springs,” the police chief said.
He credited recruiting and retention for putting more officers on patrol. It also added more officers to specialized units such as street crime.
Sandy Springs has recruited two former Georgia State Patrol troopers, one Michigan State Police trooper and one Utah Highway Patrol trooper in the last year. A Johns Creek Police officer also joined the department. DeSimone said they don’t like to poach officers from cities like College Park, East Point, and Atlanta. However, if good people want to come to Sandy Springs who meet department standards, DeSimone said they’d always welcome them.
The department has 154 sworn officers including himself, Desimone said. Approximately 75 are on patrol, with the patrol unit, traffic unit, street crimes unit and the K-9 unit.
A new radio system maps all calls and displays all active police radios. The 25 officers working patrol or special operations, and the 25 to 35 working off-duty jobs are able to respond to any call. With the take-home car program, the department can send officers who are working off duty to critical incidents.
Completion of construction for the new police headquarters and municipal court on Morgan Falls Road in 2025 will boost recruiting and retention.
Goals for 2025 include enhanced coordination with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The police department will use community engagement to help lower serious injury and fatal crashes. Aggravated assaults will get the same attention.
“Most of our aggravated assaults are domestic related, so that’s a really tough one to crack. But we have two victim advocates that are really good at what they do,” DeSimone said. “So if we can get in that domestic violence cycle before it goes too far, that can help reduce that aggravated assault numbers that we have, crime prevention is always a big thing.”
The number of homeless persons in Sandy Springs rose when Buckhead’s criminal activity rose. However, now that Buckhead’s crime activity has stabilized, DeSimone said many of them seem to have returned to Buckhead.
“We had a large surge of the homeless population move to Sandy Springs, and they were telling, especially our bike unit, that things in Buckhead were pretty tough,” the police chief said. “Even for the homeless, they were getting robbed and assaulted. So they knew Sandy Springs was safe.”
