FBI Director Kash Patel says the United States has seen a historic collapse in homicide rates under President Donald Trump, crediting a sweeping crackdown on violent offenders, child predators, and foreign espionage networks for driving crime down nationwide.
In a new interview with The Epoch Times’ Jan Jekielek, Patel said the FBI is preparing to release its year-end data next month.
The numbers represent a dramatic reversal from the lawlessness that surged under former President Joe Biden.
“I’m happy to announce, finally, that one of the big targets we had for this year, obviously, was to reduce the murder rate across America,” Patel said.
“This FBI is going to be releasing murder rates in December, which is the lowest it has been in modern history, by double digits.”
The Department of Justice has already reported a national homicide rate of 5 per 100,000 people in 2024, a 15.8 percent drop from the previous year, and nearly a 25 percent decline when measured against preliminary trends.
Roughly 17,000 murders were recorded nationwide, down sharply from 2023 but still higher than post-2015 lows.
Patel attributed the turnaround to an aggressive operational tempo inside the bureau since January, noting that the FBI has made 30,000 arrests this year, including 25,000 violent offenders.
“We are over double the amount of arrests of violent offenders this calendar year, and we still have December to go,” he said.
Targeting Criminal Networks That Prey on Children
One of Patel’s top directives has been dismantling networks that traffic, exploit, or endanger minors.
He cited the takedown of the 764 network, a Texas-based criminal enterprise.
He announced a 490 percent increase in arrests targeting the organization year-over-year.
“That’s how hard we’re going after this disgusting group of individuals, these criminals, and we’re not going to stop until we safeguard the online community,” Patel said.
The FBI also recovered approximately 6,000 missing or endangered children this year, a 25 percent increase over 2024.
Crushing Foreign Spy Networks
Another priority has been foreign intelligence operations, which Patel says proliferated during the previous administration.
According to the director, espionage-related arrests, including operatives tied to China, Russia, Iran, and others, have surged by 40 percent compared to last year.
“We are actually disrupting them,” Patel said.
“We’re kicking them out of our networks, we’re bringing them to trial, and we’re putting them in prison.
“That’s a very powerful public display of force.”
Restructuring the FBI Under Trump
Patel said the bureau’s surge in productivity is the result of a structural overhaul he launched upon taking office.
At the time, nearly 12,000 of the FBI’s 37,000 agents were concentrated in the Washington, D.C. region.
“I felt that the FBI workforce was too concentrated in what we call the national capital region,” he said.
He redeployed personnel across the country and placed an additional 1,000 agents directly into field operations.
With more resources flowing into local offices rather than D.C. bureaucracy, Patel said the FBI is now faster, more efficient, and more responsive to emerging threats.
“The results speak for themselves,” he said.
“We’re going to keep pushing as hard as we can.”
Patel said the reaction from the field has been overwhelmingly positive.
“That cultural change has been well received by the field, and that’s the only audience I care about,” Patel said.
“I don’t care about what the media thinks and how they falsely report that we are debilitating our functions as the FBI.”
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