The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is currently grappling with a significant issue of transparency.
Over the past year, media outlets have relied on the FBI's crime statistics to assert that crime rates have been on the decline. However, when the FBI published its 2023 data in September 2024, it concealed the fact that it had adjusted its previous crime data for 2021 and 2022, thereby obscuring the crime surge in 2022 and the overall increase in crime between 2022 and 2023. This lack of transparency persists, even as crime remains a pivotal issue in the imminent election, and the FBI continues to withhold information about these revisions.
According to The Federalist, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the Chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, demanded on Thursday that the FBI clarify why it concealed this surge in crime while Democrats and the media have been using the alleged decline to strengthen their electoral prospects.
Over the past few weeks, the FBI has responded to reporters' queries by asserting, The FBI stands behind each of our Crime in the Nation publications. In 2022, the estimated violent crime rate decreased 1.7 percent from 2021. However, the FBI's revised figures tell a different story.
In October 2023, the FBI initially reported that the number of reported violent crimes had dropped from 1,253,716 in 2021 to 1,232,428 in 2022, a 1.7 percent decrease. However, the figures released later in September 2023 showed an increase from 1,197,930 in 2021 to 1,256,671 in 2022, a 4.9 percent surge. This represents a 6.6-point swing.
The FBI has not provided an explanation for the altered 2022 figures in their report or in their responses to the media. David Mastio, a former editor for USA Today, commented on the FBI's response, stating, Heres what Ive learned in decades of covering Washington: When bad news is false, agency press people go out of their way to make it crystal clear that reports are definitely not true. When bad news is true, agency press people spew a wall of fog and bury you under an avalanche of distractions or in this case, contradictions.
The FBI's reluctance to openly acknowledge what their own data clearly indicates provides the mainstream media with an excuse to overlook the evident rise in crime.
The revised figures reveal that there were 20,537 more reported violent crimes in 2023 than in 2021. The FBI failed to mention these revisions in its September 2024 press release. The FBI's Summary of Crime in the Nation report included a vague footnote on page 11, stating, The 2022 violent crime rate has been updated for inclusion in CIUS, 2023. The footnote did not mention the increase in numbers. The change is only noticeable when the FBI's new crime data is downloaded and compared to the file released the previous year.
Comer's letter to the FBI criticized the bureau's failure to accurately report crime data and be transparent about revisions, calling it "unacceptable." He demanded all documents and communications between the FBI and the White House related to the 2021, 2022, and 2023 Crime in the Nation statistics.
The FBI's method of counting crimes reported to the police is not straightforward. Some police departments only partially report their data, while others do not report any data. The FBI does not assume that there were no crimes for those departments; it makes estimates, and the method of doing so can change.
However, more accurate crime data exists. It's crucial to differentiate between reported crime and total crime. For many years, it has been known that most crimes are not reported to the police. As a result, the U.S. Department of Justice established the Bureau of Justice Statistics National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which surveys 240,000 people each year about whether they have been victims of crime. The NCVS provides a measure of total crime that includes both reported and unreported crime.
The 2023 NCVS results, released in mid-September, paint a starkly different picture. From 2019, before Covid, to 2023, the NCVS shows a 19 percent increase in rape, robbery, and aggravated assaults. During the Biden administration alone, there was an astonishing 55.4 percent increase, although 2020 had its unique issues due to Covid.
The media and Democrats have focused exclusively on the FBI data, presumably because it shows the desired trend in crime. However, when the FBI covertly revised its data, the mainstream media declined to publish stories acknowledging that their previous headlines were incorrect.
The politicization of the FBI is facilitating Democrats in making these assertions. The bureau's lack of transparency and the media's selective reporting are not only misleading the public but also potentially influencing the outcome of the upcoming election.
Login