The homicide rate in the United States dropped to the lowest it's been in 75 years, according to an FBI report on 2025 crime statistics released Friday, which also showed overall violent crime dropped 9.3% last year.
Experts note that national violent crime rates have been declining since 2022, and pinpointing an exact reason is difficult. They say multiple factors contribute to decreases in crime rates seen in the FBI report, which is based on data reported voluntarily by many but not all law enforcement agencies across the country.
Click to Gallery
FILE - An FBI seal is displayed on a podium before a news conference at the field office in Portland, Ore., Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
President Donald Trump speaks at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump departs as FBI Director Kash Patel, right, watches at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FBI director Kash Patel speaks before President Donald Trump at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
“The homicide drop is historic and crystal clear. But right now, what’s driving it is about as clear as a glass of milk,” said Adam Gelb, president and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice, a think tank based in Washington.
“Rates are falling in cities with very different public safety strategies, economic conditions, and political leadership," Gelb said. "The consistency across the map should make us cautious about handing credit to any one leader, party, policy, or program before the evidence catches up.”
President Donald Trump announced the decreases in the annual crime numbers during a visit to a New York police academy Friday.
Trump proclaimed his role in lowering violent crime rates, taking a swing at his predecessor and at so-called sanctuary cities, while touting what he said was his overwhelming support of law enforcement and his tough-on-crime moves such as deploying the National Guard in Washington and elsewhere.
“We ended the war on police, and we declared a very strong war on crime,” Trump said during the Long Island appearance.
Regardless of the contributing factors, criminologists who have been tracking violent crime and property crime in a few dozen cities had been predicting that the homicide rate might drop to 4 per 100,000 residents, which would have dropped the rate to the lowest since 1900, when those rates began to be tracked.
The rate came close when the numbers from thousands of departments were calculated, reaching 4.1 homicides per 100,000 people. That rate is tied with 1955 and 1956, according to Friday's report, as the lowest rate since 1900.
The report showed murder and nonnegligent manslaughter decreased 18.1% between 2024 and 2025, while overall property crime declined by 12.4% during the same period.
Motor vehicle theft, which had spiked in 2022 and 2023 following a social media challenge that helped people exploit a manufacturing issue in some models of Kia and Hyundai vehicles, dropped by almost 23% to the lowest levels in more than 20 years.
In an unusual move just a few months before the midterm elections as many Republicans continue to tout the drop in crime, the FBI report also noted that violent and other crime has continued to drop during the first six months of 2026. The federal agency normally waits until all of the yearly data is reported to suggest a drop in crime.
Groups like the Council on Criminal Justice have also said 2026 could see an even larger decline than 2025, with homicides dropping 18% in those cities during the first six months of this year, compared with the same timeframe in 2025.
Crime surged during the coronavirus pandemic, with homicides increasing nearly 30% in 2020 over the previous year, the largest one-year jump since the FBI began keeping records. Violent crime across the U.S. dipped to near pre-pandemic levels around 2022.
The FBI collects standardized crime data from law enforcement agencies across the country through its Uniform Crime Reporting Program, though not all agencies participate. The 2025 report includes data from more than 17,000 agencies, or more than 87% of the agencies in the FBI's program, serving communities including almost 329 million Americans.
FILE - An FBI seal is displayed on a podium before a news conference at the field office in Portland, Ore., Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
President Donald Trump speaks at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump departs as FBI Director Kash Patel, right, watches at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FBI director Kash Patel speaks before President Donald Trump at the David Mack Center for Training and Intelligence, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, in Garden City, N.Y. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
GARDEN CITY, N.Y. (AP) — President Donald Trump highlighted his record on crime and safety during a visit to New York on Friday, pivoting to one of his strongest issues as he looks to boost Republicans in battleground races ahead of the November midterms.
Trump was visiting the Nassau County police academy in suburban Long Island, where he was expected to promote new FBI crime statistics being released Friday showing a decrease in violent crime for 2025. But despite the setting and an array of uniformed local police officers behind him on stage, the event was overwhelmingly a political one, with Trump lashing Democrats and promoting his record and his party's candidates.
Trump's visit aimed at boosting Republicans in closely contested races across his home state, but just how much his presence will help is in question as he faces lagging approval ratings and a deeply unpopular war in Iran with no end in sight.
Trump briefly touched on the new crime statistics, but before long he was returning to familiar attacking lines, calling his opponents “Radical left Democrats” and his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, “Sleepy Joe."
“We call them Dumb-ocrats now because their policies are so dumb. Fighting to defund the police. Does that play well in this room?” Trump said at one point, turning around to look at the officers behind him.
He criticized the state’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and insulted the state’s Attorney General, Letitia James, as “a real slob” and “a disgrace.”
James successfully sued the president and his companies for financial fraud. The Justice Department last year secured a mortgage fraud indictment against James, but the case was dismissed after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who charged her and another Trump adversary, former FBI Director James Comey, was illegally appointed.
He touted his deployment of the National Guard to cities around the U.S., including in the nation's capital. Trump repeatedly said that “young, beautiful girls in the White House" have thanked him for making Washington safer. It was not clear who he was referring to, but he said, “These young, these gorgeous, beautiful girls are — they want to be safe.”
“Two years ago, we were in a hellhole, and now we have one of the safest cities,” he said.
The new FBI statistics released Friday showed the homicide rate in the United States dropped to the lowest it’s been in 75 years. The report on 2025 crime statistics also showed that overall violent crime dropped 9.3% last year. Experts note that national violent crime rates have been declining since 2022, and pinpointing an exact reason is difficult.
Trump also promoted his tariff policies, along with his tax cuts and spending law passed last year and suggested that the tax breaks on overtime would be popular with police officers. Many of his lines, especially the political attacks, didn’t get as much of a reaction from the uniformed officers as it did from the crowd of regular Trump supporters in the audience, who enthusiastically cheered and booed on cue.
To the side of the stage during his remarks were the new U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, who each spoke to warm up the crowd before the president. Their appearance at an event that in part was designed to help Republican candidates broke longstanding norms in which the nation’s law enforcement generally tried to steer clear of participating in overtly political events.
Also seated among the guests of honor was actor Kelsey Grammer.
Trump narrowly won Nassau County in 2024, flipping the county in the largely Democratic state to Republicans for the first time in more than two decades.
It's home to one of the largest police forces in the nation and two Democratic House seats that Republicans now see as winnable this fall, and it's home turf for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Trump-endorsed Republican challenging Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
It's the second time this year Trump has visited New York in support of Blakeman and other Republicans. He stopped by the Hudson Valley area in May for a speech in which he said Blakeman would curb “out of control” crime.
Crime has emerged as a significant issue in the governor's race, with both candidates claiming to have the better track record of making New Yorkers safe. Hochul visited a different Long Island police department in July to announce a statewide investment in policing technology.
Blakeman, who briefly took the stage during Trump's remarks, said he was honored Trump was visiting.
In a Fox Business interview on Thursday, Blakeman downplayed concerns that Trump's visit would be unpopular with voters in New York City.
“When the most powerful person in the world comes to visit you and shows that you have a relationship together, I think that’s a very good thing,” Blakeman said, adding that even voters who disagree with Trump might appreciate a governor with a direct line to the president.
Hochul campaign spokesperson Ryan Radulovacki said the governor “has invested billions in public safety to protect New Yorkers — ‘MAGA all the way’ Bruce Blakeman is bringing Donald Trump to tour the county where he let violent crime spike to decade highs and Trump’s unaccountable ICE agents abuse their power.”
Matt Gorman, a Republican strategist, said Trump's visit stands to boost Blakeman along with Republican challengers looking to unseat a pair of Democratic incumbents in Nassau County districts. Michael LiPetri Jr. is challenging Rep. Tom Suozzi in New York's 3rd Congressional District, while Jeanine Driscoll is opposing Rep. Lauren Gillen in the 4th Congressional District.
The focus on crime is seen as a cornerstone issue for Republicans that appeals to Trump's base along with suburban swing voters, Gorman said.
“On the strategic level, crime is an issue that Republicans feel comfortable going on offense with, where the country kind of broadly agrees with them,” he said.
Trump is touting the issue as he faces low approval ratings on a number of other issues, including the economy and the Iran war. An AP-NORC poll from August 2025 found that Trump’s handling of crime was among his strongest issues, though his approval on the issue had fallen by 10 points by December 2025.
Price reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington and Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump attends the Patriot Games at Spire Academy in Geneva, Ohio, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)
