One last win for President Joe Biden
As the Biden-Harris administration ends its term, it marks a historic achievement. Violent crime is at a 50-year low, with homicides having fallen dramatically in the last four years to a near-record low. “A Report on Record-Low Crime During the Biden-Harris Administration,” published Friday by the White House Domestic Policy Council, emphasizes how the administration’s policies have made Americans “safer today than in decades.”
More importantly, the report points out that such an “outcome was not preordained” when Biden took office. On the contrary, in 2020, the United States was experiencing “the largest increase in murders ever recorded and the largest increase in violent crime in thirty years.” Things turned around in just four years because President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “immediately got to work.”
As the report details, the administration’s American Rescue Plan (ARP) “led to the largest-ever federal investment in public safety” by enabling “more than 1,000 states, cities, and counties [to invest] over $15 billion to support police officers, employ more innovative technologies, and fund more prosecutions of violent criminals.” Detroit Police Chief James White called the ARP “a tremendous game changer for Detroit.”
The administration also expanded federal partnerships with state and local law enforcement. The U.S. Marshals Service apprehended over 10,200 fugitives, including 1,153 charged with homicide since July 2022, with law enforcement recovering over 1,400 weapons. The Department of Justice also launched carjacking task forces, leading to “double-digit declines” in targeted cities like Philadelphia and Chicago. The administration also doubled the number of Crime Gun Intelligence Centers (CGICs) and increased their ability to identify violent offenders.
Another priority was tackling “the scourge of gun violence.” The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), “the most significant gun violence law in nearly 30 years,” made gun trafficking a federal crime, expanded background checks, and funded $250 million for violence reduction programs. These efforts seized over 1,300 illegal guns and prevented 800 sales to underage buyers.
Public safety reforms also played a key role in lowering the crime rate while increasing public confidence in law enforcement. Thanks to the Biden-Harris administration having moved forward with “the most comprehensive federal effort to improve policing ever undertaken,” Americans’ confidence in the police saw an eight-point increase in 2024.
Indeed, this report chronicles an administration that has worked tirelessly to make the country safer for all Americans. Despite what Donald Trump and his friends desperately want us to believe, the fact is his administration is inheriting a country that is safer than it has been in decades—in stark contrast to what Trump left Biden four years ago. We can now only hope that this vital progress will continue.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month