Rapes were down by 9 percent, and aggravated assaults dropped 23 percent from 1999 to 2000, police said. The results kept the city in line with an FBI reported released Dec. 20 showing drops in all but one of the city's major crime categories that federal officials track. The FBI report, which included cities of more than 100,000, reported four homicides in the city from January to June 2000, down significantly from the 15 during the first six months of 1999. The FBI report showed overall reported crime in the South rose a little more than 1 percent in the first half of 2000, making Macon one of just a handful of cities in its region to show a significant decrease. Fields said that although Macon police are pleased that the crime numbers are dropping, he acknowledged that there remains a problem with public perception of an increase in crime.
Anytime someone is affected by crime, then in their eyes, crime is up from where it previously was.
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