VERIFY: Fact-checking Kasim Reed's statement on Atlanta Police firing guns

ATLANTA — Crime is on the minds of many in Atlanta and will shape the decisions people make. It's already a central theme in upcoming elections, both locally and statewide. 

Former Mayor Kasim Reed, who is running again for Atlanta Mayor, made a bold-sounding claim about how infrequently police officers fired their weapons while he was leading the city. 

So, we're verifying the facts. Here's what we found. 

THE QUESTION: 

Are Kasim Reed's claims about police officers firing their weapons while he was mayor accurate?

THE SOURCES:

• Kasim Reed's statement on Aug. 17, 2021 
• Atlanta Police Department's officer gun firing catalog

THE ANSWER:

If you look at Kasim Reed's claim as an annual statistic, it is verified as TRUE with officers firing guns less than 17 times during four individual years during his term, according to data from the Atlanta Police Department.

WHAT WE FOUND:

At a rally outside city hall three weeks ago, Reed talked about violent crime– and floated this statistic from his previous term as mayor:

"And in 1.6 million officer-involved interactions, we had our officers fire their guns less than 17 times."

Atlanta Police officers are required to report every time they fire a weapon. The city catalogs it and provided the data starting in 2012. This was the third year of Reed's eight years as mayor. 

Here’s what the records show: 

From 2012 through 2017– during Reed’s final six years as mayor, officers fired guns 104 times, according to APD data.

However, if you look at the data for each year, Reed's statement makes somewhat more sense. 

• 2012: 18
• 2013: 15
• 2014: 16
• 2015: 15
• 2016: 16

Atlanta Police reported using firearms fewer than 17 times in each individual year. 

So, if you look at Reed's claim as an annual statistic, this claim is verified as TRUE with police officers firing guns less than 17 times during four of the years during his term, according to APD's data. 

However, we also wanted to know how police have done during Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms' first three years as mayor.

• 2018: 42
• 2019: 7 
• 2020: 19

Irrespective of who was mayor, the data shows that over the nine years we checked out, Atlanta Police used a firearm once every 19 days. The same data indicates that police officers used tasers once every 2.5 days.