[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 2 (Monday, January 13, 1997)]
[Pages 8-9]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the Decline in Serious Crime

January 5, 1997

    These new FBI statistics show that for the fifth year in a row, 
serious crime in this country has declined. This is the longest period 
of decline in over 25 years.
    At the beginning of my administration, we set out to change this 
country's approach to crime by putting more officers on our streets 
through community policing and taking guns out of the hands of 
criminals. We are making a difference. Today, our neighborhoods are 
safer, and we are restoring the American people's confidence that crime 
can be reduced.
    But our work is not done. We must continue to move in the right 
direction by adding more police officers, cracking down on gangs, and 
reducing gun and drug violence. That is why I have placed curbing 
juvenile violence at the top of my anticrime agenda for the new year.

Note: This statement was embargoed for release until 5 p.m.

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