For the first time in a long time, Americans can have hope for a safer future, with a slower murder rate and decreasing violent crime.
When President Trump was inaugurated, he made the American people a promise: “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”
It is a promise that he has kept.
In the fight against crime, there is a lot at stake. There is even more at stake for communities that are already struggling. In high-crime areas, businesses and jobs leave, property values plummet, and kids have a harder time in school. These sad consequences only lead to a vicious cycle of crime, poverty and more crime.
When crime goes up, the consequences can be dire. From 1961 to 1985, violent crime rates in America more than tripled. It was a tough time for communities across America, especially in our cities. Minority communities were disproportionately impacted.
More: DACA doesn't solve anything, especially for the GOP. Build the wall first.
More: While Trump's critics keep talking, our president is fulfilling his promises
I was a federal prosecutor at the time, starting as an assistant U.S. attorney in 1975 and then as a U.S. attorney from 1981 to 1993. Working closely with our law enforcement partners, we learned together what worked and what didn’t, and departments developed innovative new policing and other strategies. Meanwhile, Congress enacted important bipartisan legal reforms that gave prosecutors and law enforcement new tools to take criminals, gangs, guns and deadly drugs off of our streets.
We went to work, and the results were transformational. Crime in America began to decline. From its peak in 1991, the violent rate was cut in half by 2014 — saving thousands upon thousands of American lives. The murder rate also fell by half.
In some of our big cities, we achieved even bigger declines. Research has shown that this historic reduction in the crime rate improved upward mobility, test scores and even life expectancy.
But then, in 2015 and 2016, our country experienced the largest increases in violent crime we had seen in a quarter-century.
Over those two years, the violent crime rate went up by nearly 7%. The robbery rate went up. The assault rate went up nearly 10%. The rate of rape went up 11%. And the murder rate went up by a shocking 20%.
Trump ran for office on a message of law and order, and he won. When he took office, he ordered the Department of Justice to stop and reverse these trends — and that is what we have been doing every day for the past year.
We have placed trust in our prosecutors again, and we’re restoring respect for law enforcement. We have invested in new resources and put in place smarter policies based on sound research.
Ensuring every neighborhood in America is safe again will take time, but we are already starting to see results.
More: Five flaws in Trump's crime agenda: James Alan Fox
POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media
In 2017, we brought cases against more violent criminals than in any year in decades. We charged the most federal firearm prosecutions in a decade. We convicted nearly 500 human traffickers and 1,200 gang members, and helped our international allies arrest about 4,000 MS-13 members. We also arrested and charged hundreds of people suspected with contributing to the ongoing opioid crisis.
Morale is up among our law enforcement community. Any loss of life is one too many, but it is encouraging that the number of officers killed in the line of duty declined for the first time since 2013, reaching its second lowest level in more than half a century. And we are empowering and supporting our critically important state, local and tribal law enforcement partners as we work together to protect communities from crime.
In the first six months of last year, the increase in the murder rate slowed and violent crime actually went down. Publicly available data for the rest of the year suggest further progress. For the first time in the past few years, the American people can have hope for a safer future.
Our strategy at this department of concentrating on the most violent criminals, taking down violent gang networks, prioritizing gun prosecutions, and supporting our state, local and tribal law enforcement partners has proven to work.
Of course, our work is not done. Crime is still far too high — especially in the most vulnerable neighborhoods.
This first year of the Trump era shows once again that the difficult work we do alongside our state, local and tribal law enforcement partners makes a difference. Crime rates are not like the tides — we can help change them. And under Trump’s strong leadership, we will.
Jeff Sessions is the attorney general of the United States.