ATLANTA -- Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington and Assistant Chief Alan Dreher announced today that they will resign from their post in the next two weeks.

Mayor Shirley Franklin accepted their resignation and thanked them for their hard work.

"I have been privileged to work with both of them. They have brought reform and professionalism to police department," said Franklin.

She said even with a budget crisis that caused a 10 percent reduction in police force through furloughs in the first half of the year, that crime was still down 13 percent this year in Atlanta.

"When I look at these crime numbers, I think the men and women have done an excellent job," said Pennington.

"Over our tenure, the Chief and my tenure here, we've had significant reduction in crime as numbers will bear out. Probably about 20 percent overall reduction in crime, a nearly 40 percent in violent crime" Dreher said.

Pennington said that there have been 72 murders in Atlanta so far this year. When he came here in 2002 there were 167.