The Safest and Most Dangerous Places in Decatur, GA
Decatur is a city of 102,400 in DeKalb County, about 8 miles east of downtown Atlanta · Updated November 2026
Is Decatur, GA safe?
Decatur is among the higher-crime places in the US: an overall CrimeGrade™ of D, with more crime than the neighborhoods where 91% of Americans live. Violent crime grades F and property crime C-. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within Decatur run from A to F, so check the map below.
D
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 173 of 1,000Less safe than nearly all US neighborhoodsi What this means
9% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than Decatur as a whole, and 91% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. Decatur scores 173.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in Decatur, GA at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in Decatur, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out in Decatur
Vehicle theft at more than triple the US rate. Decatur has 9.5 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents, against 2.7 nationally.
Burglaries happen at stores and businesses far more often than nationally. In Decatur, 53% of reported burglaries happen at stores and businesses, against 28% nationally.
The safest and least safe parts of Decatur
Safety changes a lot from one part of Decatur to the next: 35% of residents live in areas graded A or B, while 61% live in areas graded D or F. Grades across Decatur run from A to F; 9% of residents live in areas with less crime than the typical US neighborhood.
35%61%
A or B 35%C 4%D or F 61%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
Within Decatur, the northwest side has the least crime and the center the most.
Crime rates and types in Decatur
CrimeGrade™ estimates Decatur has about 77 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, about double the rate for the US as a whole and about double the rate for Georgia.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
Assault is the most common crime in Decatur, about 33% of everything reported, but murder costs more, because each one does far more harm.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when crime happens in Decatur
Decatur has its own police department, and these figures come from its reports, 2022 to 2024.
Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 43% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Stores and businesses (53%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (43%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (43%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (37%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How Decatur compares with nearby cities
Decatur has less crime than 5 of its 9 nearest cities.
Empty homes, night lighting and walkability in Decatur
Two things set Decatur apart: it has 15.7% of its homes standing empty, against 7.1% nationally, and 14 buses and trains an hour at the evening rush, where most Americans have none nearby. Places like that tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson, and burglary and vandalism run high here.
Empty homesSeasonal and vacation homes are left out. Places with many empty homes tend to report more burglary, vandalism and arson.15.7% of homesUS: 7.1%Higher than for 97% of US city residents
Lit at nightSatellite images show which neighborhoods are lit at night, a sign of busy streets and businesses. Brightly lit places tend to report more theft and vandalism.100% where people liveUS: 78%Higher than for 92% of US city residents
Walk GradeBestNeighborhood's grade for getting through daily life on foot, traced along real walking routes to shops, schools and parks. Walkable places tend to report more theft and assault. 83% of residents here live in car-dependent areas.D (17 of 100)US: 21Lower than for 51% of US city residents
Show all 6
Transit serviceBuses and trains an hour at the evening rush. Places with busy transit tend to report more theft and robbery. BestNeighborhood's Transit Grade for Decatur: D+ (22 of 100).14 trips an hourUS: noneHigher than for 89% of US city residents
Parking lotsBig lots at stores, offices and apartment complexes. Places with more lot space tend to report more theft.1.4 spaces per residentUS: 2.0Lower than for 64% of US city residents
Stores and restaurantsShops and restaurants draw crowds and parked cars. Places with many stores tend to report more theft.9.8 per 1,000 residentsUS: 10.5Lower than for 55% of US city residents
BestNeighborhood, a sister site of CrimeGrade™, ranks the neighborhoods of Decatur on shops, parks, home prices, getting around and more.
These traits tend to go with more or less crime; none of them causes it on its own. Sources: Census job counts and housing figures, OpenStreetMap and Overture business listings, CrimeGrade™ parking estimates, NASA night-light imagery, US Forest Service tree cover, EPA transit data and BestNeighborhood's Walk Grade.
What crime costs Decatur
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs Decatur about $2,836 a year per household, more than double the US figure of $1,205. The total is about $121 million a year.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost rises to about $463 million a year, or $4,520 per resident.
How the cost breaks down
Crime
Cost a year
Per resident
Murder
$42 million
$412
Rape
$2.2 million
$22
Robbery
$4.9 million
$48
Assault
$31 million
$304
Burglary
$4.4 million
$43
Theft
$13 million
$129
Vehicle theft
$15 million
$146
Arson
$210,000
$2
Vandalism
$7.3 million
$71
Total
$121 million
$1,177
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in Decatur means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
Published research on what crime costs victims and communities
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
Schools in Decatur, GA average a SchoolGrade of D+: 33% of students test proficient, against 38% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in Decatur on SchoolGrade
