Violent and property crimes fell significantly in the first quarter of 2024, according to new Federal Bureau of Investigation data.

Murder decreased 26.4%, rape was down 25.7% and aggravated assault fell 12.5%, while robbery decreased 17.8% and reported property crime fell 15.1% compared with the same period a year earlier.

What You Need To Know

  • Murder decreased 26.4% and rape was down 25.7% in the first quarter of 2024 compared with a year earlier, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation

  • Robbery decreased 17.8% and reported property crime fell 15.1%

  • President Biden credited his American Rescue Plan with providing $15 billion to cities to hire and retain police officers

  • He said he plans to continue working on additional funding to put another 100,000 police officers on the street

For its analysis, the FBI received crime data from more than 11,000 law enforcement agencies across the nation representing 72% of law enforcement agencies nationally.

“Violent crime is dropping at record levels in America,” President Biden said in a statement responding to the FBI data. “These large decreases follow major reductions in crime in nearly every category in 2023 — including one of the lowest rates for all violent crime in 50 years and significant declines in murder.”

President Joe Biden credited his American Rescue Plan with providing $15 billion to cities to hire and retain police officers, as well as the Bipartisan Safety Communities Act, the first major firearm legislation passed by Congress in decades. In a statement, he said he plans to continue working on additional funding to put another 100,000 police officers on the street in crime prevention and community violence intervention programs.

"This progress we’re seeing is no accident," Biden said. "My Administration is putting more cops on the beat, holding violent criminals accountable, and getting illegal guns off the street – and we are doing it in partnership with communities. As a result, Americans are safer today than when I took office."

"But there is more to do," he later added. "I will continue fighting for funding for 100,000 additional police officers, and crime prevention and community violence intervention programs. Every American deserves to feel safe in their community – which is why I will continue to invest in public safety."

The president's reelection campaign also drew a sharp contrast with the nation’s crime data during the Trump administration. The campaign said the nation’s murder rate increased 30% between 2019 and 2020 — the largest single-year increase in more than a century, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — while also taking a swipe at former President Donald Trump, calling him a "convicted felon" after he was found guilty of 34 felonies in his New York hush money trial last month.