Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is aiming to make her city safer.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on Friday (July 16), Bottoms announced at City Hall that she’s creating an office charged with reducing crime, which is one of the recommendations made by her Anti-Violence Advisory Council.

In May, Bottoms convened the Council, composed of partners and community members, to review her city’s plans to combat violent crime.

Bottoms said her working group also advised her to pursue a $70 million investment into the recommendations. $50 million of the funding will be provided by the public while the additional $20 million will be generated by philanthropic and nonprofit partners.

RELATED: Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Announces New Police Chief And Initiative To Curb Violence

Crime in Atlanta has spiked over the past year, a fact Bottoms attributes to societal impact of coronavirus pandemic.

“Because our state was open, and there were many people coming into our city, we were starting to see an uptick in crime before many other major cities, and unfortunately what we saw was just not something happening in Atlanta,” Bottoms said Friday, according to the AJC.

Homicides had been up nearly 60 percent from 2020, however now, Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said Friday the homicide rate is currently up by less than 25 percent and claiming the latest homicide rate suggests the new public safety plans “are actually putting a dent in that violent crime.”

Below are key points of Keisha Lance Bottoms’ public safety office (provided by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution):

• Invest $70 million into nine initiatives to fight crime


• Creation of a Mayor’s Office of Violence Reduction to directly report to the mayor the progress of the public safety plans


• Place local security officers in areas most affected by violence


• Track violent repeat offenders and expand reentry services


• Support blight remediation and property development


• Hire 250 more police officers before July 2022 and install 250 more security cameras by December 2021


• Create youth councils, work with faith leaders, and invest in mental health services to support communities.