WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – The Department of Justice is pledging to do even more to reduce all crime after new FBI statistics showed a drop in violent crime across the country.
“This department and our state and local partners will not rest until every community in our country is safe from the scourge of violent crime,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
While FBI data shows crimes like murder, rape and aggravated assault are down, the outlier remains property crime. Car theft alone jumped more than 7% in 2022.
During their first press conference of the year Garland and his Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco vowed to enhance their strategy.
“…that means more joint federal state and local to target violent criminals in putting more cops on the beat,” Monaco said.
“This is not a time to relax on our efforts, we have so much more to do,” Garland said.
They say bipartisan gun legislation signed by President Joe Biden in 2022 is helping local and federal law enforcement track and prevent gun violence.
The Biden administration says enhanced background checks has stopped more than 500 unlawful gun purchases.
Alex Piquero, the former director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, says the DOJ’s reporting is promising but it’s not the whole picture. He notes some cities like Washington D.C., and Memphis are reporting increases in homicides.
“There are two stories here, there is a national story but there’s also a local story,” Piquero said.
For cities seeing positive trends Lindsey McLendon, a criminal justice fellow, says simply being out of a pandemic may be a factor but adds it’s hard to say for sure.