Lowest Crime Rates in 25 Years

Overall Crime Rate at Lowest Level Since 1973

• Under President Clinton and Vice President Gore, America has experienced the longest continuous drop in crime on record. Violent crime rate fell 7 percent in 1998 and 27 percent since 1993. The murder rate is down more than 25 percent since 1993, its lowest point since 1967.

[source: FBI, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 1998]

Funding 100,000 New Police Officers.

• The Clinton-Gore Administration met its commitment of funding 100,000 police officers for our communities, ahead of schedule and under budget. In the FY 2000 budget, the President won full funding for the first installment toward his goal to hire up to 50,000 more police officers for our nation's streets by 2005.

[source: Justice Department, COPS Program, 5/12/99]

Keeping Criminals and their Guns off our Streets

• Since the President signed the Brady Bill into law more than 470,000 felons, fugitives and stalkers have been denied guns.
• The historic 1994 Crime Bill banned 19 of the deadliest assault weapons and their copies and increased penalties for interstate gun trafficking and for using semiautomatic weapons in violent or drug trafficking offenses.
• The Clinton-Gore Administration has vigorously prosecuted gun crimes. From 1998 to 1999, the number of federal firearms cases prosecuted by U.S. Attorneys increased 25 percent, from 4,391 cases in 1998 to 5,500 cases in 1999.
• Tough prosecutions, strategic efforts to deter and prevent gun crime, and the passage of strong new gun laws such as the Brady Act, have together led to a more than 35 percent drop in gun-related crime since 1992 and a 57 percent decrease in juvenile gun homicide offenders since 1993.
• The homicide rate dropped 7 percent in 1998 – almost entirely due to a decrease in homicides committed with guns.

[source: Department of Justice, 11/30/99, 1/18/2000; CQ Annual 1994]

Giving Police the Tools They Need to Fight Crime

• President Clinton and Vice President Gore won $230 million in the FY00 budget to provide law enforcement with the latest crime-fighting and crime-solving technology.
• This funding will help make crime mapping technology -- which enables police agencies to track crime hot spots and target their resources to where they are most needed -- more widely available, to improve compatibility among law enforcement radio systems, and aid development of innovative programs such as the so-called ALERT car, which allows officers to enter electronically, at the scene of a crime, at an accident or at a traffic stop.

[source: Justice Department, 2/1/99]

Developed Comprehensive Anti-Drug Strategy

• President Clinton appointed four-star general Barry McCaffery to lead anti-drug strategy as the nation's Drug Czar.
• Illicit drug use among young people age 12-17 declined from 1997 to 1998.
• Overall drug use is down since its peak in the 1970's, drug-related murders have fallen by 40 percent since 1992, and youth drug use is on the decline for the third straight year.

[source: Dept of Health and Human Services, 12/17/99]

Fighting Hate Crimes

• President Clinton fought for and signed the Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act in 1994.
• President Clinton hosted the first White House Conference on Hate Crimes, where he called for passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act -- bipartisan legislation which would strengthen hate crimes laws and make it clear that America will not tolerate acts of violence based on race, color, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation or disability.

[source: White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 11/10/97]