Data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows violent crime was down at the start of the year.
This includes crimes like murder, rape and robbery.
For January through March 2024, violent crime was down 15.2% compared to the same period last year.
Murder decreased 26.4% year over year, and rape declined about the same, with a drop of 25.7%.
Robbery was down 17.8%, and aggravated assault declined 12.5%. Over the same period, reported property crime was also down 15.1%.
In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the numbers are not just statistics, but represent “people whose lives were saved."
He said the U.S. Department of Justice will continue working to keep the numbers down.
“When I became Attorney General over three years ago, we knew that grappling with the violent crime that surged early in the pandemic would be one of the greatest challenges we would face at the Justice Department," Garland said in a press release. "That is why we have poured every available resource into working with our law enforcement and community partners to drive down violent crime. But we know there is so much more work to do, and that the progress we have seen can still easily slip away."
“We will continue to deploy our technological and prosecutorial resources to identify and prosecute the principal drivers of gun violence. We will continue to invest in the essential programs that allow police departments to hire more officers. We will continue to build the public trust essential for public safety. And we will continue to support the evidence-based community violence intervention initiatives that save lives,” he said.
