Chattanooga police recorded 89 cases of credit card or ATM fraud from April through September 2026, the fewest for that window in the twelve years the dataset covers (2015 to 2026). In the same months of 2019 there were 229 (-61.1%), and from 2015 through 2019 the window never went below 194; the peak was 305 in 2018. The count was 120 in 2024 and 115 in 2025. Each case number is counted once, and cases marked Unfounded are excluded (none since 2020).

Full years show the same path: between 396 and 510 cases a year from 2015 through 2019, then 325 in 2020, 273 in 2023, 221 in 2024 and 223 in 2025, the two lowest of the eleven complete years (-44.0% from 2019 to 2025). From 2015 through 2019 the city averaged about 36 of these cases a month; in 2024 and 2025 it averaged about 18, and no month since January 2024 has recorded more than 29.

The drop is much larger than the change in police cases overall. Over the same April-September window, all recorded cases went from 31,050 in 2019 to 28,377 in 2026 (-8.6%), so card fraud fell from 0.74% of cases to 0.31%.

It is not confined to a few stores. The ten addresses with the most card fraud cases since 2015 (mostly Hamilton Place, Gunbarrel Road, Greenway View Drive, Amnicola Highway, Highway 153, Signal Mountain Road and Cummings Highway) went from 43 cases in April-September 2019 to 7 in 2026; every other address went from 186 to 82 (-55.9%). The cases came from 161 block addresses in 2019 and 86 in 2026. All six police zones fell: Charlie North 74 to 22, Adam North 42 to 19, Charlie South 39 to 8, Adam South 34 to 20, Baker North 22 to 14 and Baker South 18 to 6. All nine council districts were lower too, though District 9 barely moved (8 to 7). Cases where card fraud was the only offense listed fell from 172 to 74 (-57.0%), close to the drop in the total.

Some of the decline may be cases being recorded under a neighboring fraud category. Over the same window, false pretense/swindle/confidence game cases rose from 306 to 352, impersonation went from 98 to 83 and wire or computer fraud held at 23-24. Counting card fraud and swindle together, the decline is 17.8% (535 to 440).

Few of these cases end in an arrest: 25 of 229 in April-September 2019 and none of the 89 in 2026, though newer cases have had less time to close. Full years: 46 arrests in 2019, 6 in 2024 and 6 in 2025.

The dataset records incidents reported to or by police. Many card fraud victims deal only with their bank, so this cannot tell fewer frauds apart from fewer police reports, and it gives no reason for the decline. The comparison uses April through September because the published file has far fewer records for February and March 2026 than for the months around them.