Newly sworn-in Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday that he thinks a rise in crime is a “dangerous permanent trend,” contradicting FBI data that indicates an overall downward trend.
“We have a crime problem,” Sessions said, speaking from the Oval Office after being sworn in as President Donald Trump’s attorney general. “I wish the rise that we are seeing in crime in America today were some sort of aberration or a blip.”
Instead, Sessions said that he judged it to be a “dangerous permanent trend” and that “there are a lot of things” that need to be done at the Justice Department, per the pool report.
The number of violent crimes in the United States rose nearly 4 percent in 2015 compared to the year before, according to the FBI’s annual data report released in 2016. The total was still lower than levels in 2011 and 2006, however, indicating an overall longterm decrease in crime rates.
