On June 11, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released their “Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report” for 2011. The preliminary overall findings are that, “the nation experienced a 4.0 percent decrease in the number of violent crimes.” The decrease continues a decade-plus decline in the category.  The nation also recorded “a 0.8 percent decline in the number of property crimes in 2011 when compared with data from 2010.” Among the property crime categories, “Motor vehicle thefts declined in all population groupings.”

According to the FBI website, “The report is based on information the FBI gathered from 14,009 law enforcement agencies that submitted six to 12 comparable months of data for both 2010 and 2011.”  Final figures will be published in the fall of 2012 in the agency’s annual “Crime in the United States (CIUS) Report.”

The preliminary findings, however, also showed an increase of 18.3 percent in the number of murders and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses “in cities with populations under 10,000.” This compared with a 14.4 percent decrease in the same two categories in cities with populations of 50,000 – 99,999. The FBI did not offer any reasons for this particular set of data.

In April the Forum posted an article on a New York Times report that recounted that though violent crime rates have declined, the number of police officers murdered in the line of duty had risen dramatically.