The Norcross Police Department reported a more than 25 percent reduction in overall crime in 2025, with nearly all major categories now well below 10- and 15-year averages.
In 2025, the NPD earned its first Excellence in Policing Certification, one of four departments in Georgia to receive the award. The department also completed 6,039 total training hours, averaging 92 hours per employee, with internal and external reviews showing strong compliance and responsible oversight.
Last year, Norcross activated its real-time camera integration platform, Axon Fusus, which provides a network of license-plate readers and centralizes data for command staff.
Beyond crime reduction, officials reported that traffic safety improved substantially. The department handled 931 vehicle accidents, the lowest number of traffic accidents within city limits in 15 years.
Looking ahead to 2026, the department plans to expand K-9 units and complete the new public safety building, which will house police and municipal court operations.
Comments from leadership
In the city’s announcement, Mayor Craig Newton said results don’t happen by chance.
“They are the direct result of a highly professional police department, strong leadership, and meaningful partnerships with our community,” Newton said. “I am incredibly proud of the Norcross Police Department for its continued commitment to safety, accountability, and service.”
The Norcross Police Department is staffed by 53 sworn officers, 20 civilian personnel, and two contracted mental health professionals. Its focus is on proactive policing strategies designed to deter crime while maintaining transparency and trust within one of the most diverse communities in the nation.
“These achievements reflect a department that is not only reducing crime, but doing so the right way, through training, transparency, and adherence to the highest professional standards,” Newton said.
Chief talks crime
Police Chief Bill Grogan, speaking at a community forum, said his responsibility falls within the six square miles of Norcross, which has a population of just under 20,000. On weekdays, the population quadruples with heavy traffic coming in and out of Atlanta.
“Twenty-eight percent was our overall reduction from [2024], and it was a 22 percent reduction the year before that. These are major decreases in crime,” Grogan said. “We’re seeing this around the nation.”
People Drinking Coffee, a community group meeting weekly at 45 South Cafe in downtown Norcross, brings in a speaker every Wednesday at 8 a.m. Grogan spoke to a crowded room in late January about crime, new initiatives, and the department’s role in immigration enforcement.
Grogan, a former U.S. Navy intelligence specialist and police captain, is celebrating a decade as chief of police this June. He said throughout all neighborhoods and commercial areas, four or five of the city’s 14 hotels have been an ongoing challenge for police officers.
“This is not going to change,” Grogan said, without divulging specific hotel names. “Some work very well with us, and then there are others that we have to deal with. We have a dedicated crime suppression team that focuses primarily on them.”
Grogan said he receives questions about high-frequency sites for officer responses.
“If you compare one neighborhood of single-family detached with large lots to, for example, an apartment complex here in the city, it’s going to be the same service delivery,” Grogan said. “They’re not going to be any different.”
Policy on immigration
“The City of Norcross Police Department, this is the key part here, has nothing to do with immigration,” Grogan said. “I do not care; no one on my staff cares where anyone is from. We have a duty to protect and serve, and that’s it. It doesn’t say who. If you’re not obeying the laws, you deal with us.”
Grogan said that House Bill 1105, signed into law in May 2024, requires local police departments to honor immigration detainers. It also prevents local governments from adopting sanctuary policies, with reporting mechanisms to ensure compliance.
“We also have to ask the question or request them to answer the question, ‘What is your legal status?'” Grogan said. “If you don’t have any identification at all, we have no way of figuring out who you are, and we ask, ‘Are you here legally?'”
That’s about as far as the Norcross Police Department dips into any activity related to immigration. Grogan said the department records the type of license each individual presents to officers and stores it in a database, in accordance with HB 1105.
“In almost two years, I have never been asked for that information,” Grogan said. “That law just basically stops right there, and nothing else happens from it. So you all are confused as I am by it.”
Grogan said if the department encounters someone with a valid arrest warrant from another jurisdiction, including federal immigration detainers, state law requires their arrest. Jails, if requested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, must hold individuals for up to 48 hours.
“That is the only thing that we would potentially do when dealing with immigration,” Grogan said. “I can’t find anybody in my department who has had it happen.”
