All Americans can be pleased with today's report that our Nation's crime rate is at a 10 year low and we have reduced murder and violent crime rates to their lowest levels since 1989. Our anticrime strategy—to put more police on the street while working to get drugs, gangs, and guns out of our neighborhoods—is working.
We can be proud of the progress we have made, but there is still much work to be done. We must bear down even harder on violent juvenile crime. Last May, I submitted to Congress the Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Control Act of 1996. Enacting that bill's tough, new measures is my top anticrime priority.
NOTE: This statement was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on October 11, and it was embargoed for release until October 13.
William J. Clinton, Statement on Anticrime Initiatives Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/221952