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. on November 22.
William J. Clinton, Statement on the 1997 Uniform Crime Report Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/225278