[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 48 (Monday, November 30, 1998)]
[Page 2371]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the 1997 Uniform Crime Report

November 22, 1998

    The 1997 Uniform Crime Report released by the FBI today shows that 
murder, rape, robbery, assault, and even juvenile crime fell across the 
board last year. Serious crime has now fallen for 6 years in a row. With 
the murder rate down by more than 25 percent since I took office and now 
at its lowest level in three decades, Americans are safer today than 
they have been in many years. Our strategy of putting more police on the 
beat and getting guns off the street is working. Americans have taken 
back their neighborhoods and shown that rising crime and deadly violence 
need not be tolerated. But in far too many communities, crime remains a 
serious problem, and our work is far from done. We must continue the job 
of putting 100,000 more police on our streets, tougher laws on our 
books, and more effective crime prevention in our schools. With these 
efforts, we can keep driving down the crime rates--and keep tipping the 
scales of justice in favor of law-abiding Americans.

Note: This statement was made available by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on November 21 but was embargoed for release until 9 a.m., 
November 22.