The FBI [official website] on Monday reported an increase in violent crime during 2015 and decrease in property crimes [press release]. Crime in the United States, 2015 [report materials] revealed the first increase in violent crime in recent years, although property crimes have been declining each year for over a decade. While the report showed a 3.9 percent rise in violent crime from 2014, the totals for 2015 were lower than 2011 by 0.7 percent, and lower than 2006 by 16.5 percent [FBI report]. Included in the report was a message [text] from FBI Director James Comey [official profile] highlighting the necessity of accurate crime statistics:

We need more transparency and accountability in law enforcement. We also need better, more informed conversations about crime and policing in this country. To get there, we are improving the way this nation collects, analyzes, and uses crime statistics and data about law enforcement’s use of force. Information that is accurate, reliable, complete, and timely will help all of us learn where we have problems and how to get better.

The report also unveiled that crime was almost twice as high in the southern US than in other regions [Reuters report].

The report was released amid a national conversation about police use of force, as well as conversations about hate crimes in general. Last week the US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] opened an investigation [JURIST report] into the fatal police shooting of Terence Crutcher, an unarmed black man who was shot the previous week by a Tulsa, Oklahoma, police officer. A new report compiled by California State University, San Bernardino [official website] and released earlier this month found an increase in hate crimes [JURIST report] in 2015, particularly against Muslims and Arab-Americans. In May Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards signed into law an amended hate crimes bill [JURIST report], referred to as the “Blue Lives Matter” law, including police, EMS personnel and firefighters in the category of those protected.