The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is launching an investigation into the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for allegedly failing to report complete and accurate national crime data, which the federal law enforcement agency was caught "stealth-editing" a year later.
This week, the GOP-led House Oversight Committee's chairman, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), sent a scathing letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding transparency about the "quietly revised" crime statistics.
In 2023, the FBI initially reported about a 2 percent decrease in violent crime nationwide in its annual 2022 report but later edited it to reflect that this figure actually increased by 4.5 percent — more than a 6 percent change. This correction — discovered in the fall of 2024 — was not accordingly publicized, nor the did bureau make any public announcement explaining the discrepancy.
Comer's memo cites crime watchdog Dr. John Lott's investigative research, which found that the FBI failed to include in its initial count an additional 1,699 murders, 7,780 rapes, 33,459 robberies, and 37,091 aggravated assaults.
After Democrats and journalists have spent the entire election cycle claiming that crime is down, the FBI three weeks before an election revises their crime statistics showing that crime increased by 4.5% in 2022 instead of dropping 2.1%.
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) October 16, 2024
Incredible. pic.twitter.com/3wgaEsQoID
While it's not unprecedented for the FBI to slightly amend provisional data, making minor edits, such a change is rarely this "drastic," Comer remarked. One expert who specializes in studying crime told Lott that there were no revisions from 2004 to 2015, and only small changes of less than one percentage point between 2016 and 2020.
"The FBI's failure to accurately report crime data and be transparent regarding revisions is unacceptable," Comer told Wray.
Comer is calling on the agency to hand over all documents and communications it has had with the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House related to the statistical crime reports issued during the Biden-Harris administration. The FBI has until November 14 to furnish the records stretching back to the beginning of Joe Biden's presidency.
Comer noted that this revision calls into question the veracity of the agency's recently released 2023 Crime in the Nation report, which estimates a 3 percent drop in national violent crime.
Vice President Kamala Harris has since touted the 2023 stats on the presidential campaign trail as an accomplishment of her administration, saying "our dedicated efforts and collaborative partnerships with law enforcement are working; Americans are safer now than when we took office."
Presidential debate moderator David Muir even tried to fact-check Donald Trump's declaration that crime is on the rise. "President Trump, as you know, the FBI says overall violent crime is actually coming down in this country," Muir claimed on the debate stage.
PRESIDENT TRUMP WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING https://t.co/NPJgEhvq96 pic.twitter.com/veMBAzqN8j
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 16, 2024
"Americans effectively have been told by the Biden-Harris Administration and the media to not believe their lying eyes, and that crime is down," Comer wrote.
Harris' media cohorts are using the dubious data to dispel concerns about crime. In the lead-up to the 2024 election, the left has heavily leaned on the FBI's incomplete data to claim that there's a "rapid decline" in violent crime across the country.
Comer said the congressional committee is therefore concerned that the FBI's reporting failures — and perhaps fudging of the numbers — are politically motivated.
In February, a Rasmussen Reports survey found that, by a 4.7-to-1 margin, the majority of American voters believe that violent crime in the U.S. is worsening (61 percent), not getting better (13 percent). Crime remains a top concern for Americans. According to Pew Research, as of September, 61 percent of American voters consider violent crime a very important issue.
However, the mainstream media has repeatedly chastised Americans for believing crime is currently out of control, with NBC News saying, "The numbers tell a different story," Forbes reporting, "U.S. Violent Crime Is Down. Many Voters Refuse To Believe It," and ABC agreeing, "US stats show violent crime dramatically falling, so why is there a rising clash with perception?"
The FBI told Fox News Digital it stands behind each of its Crime in the Nation publications, noting that a "significant number" of law enforcement agencies were unable to transition from the bureau's traditional Summary Reporting System (SRS) to the new, more comprehensive National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) for the 2021 data collection year.
"Due to the lower volume of participation, the FBI was unable to produce the traditional national estimates for 2021," the bureau said. "To provide a confident comparison of crime trends across the nation, the UCR Program performed a NIBRS estimation crime trend analysis."
The agency added that last month's release of the 2023 Crime in the Nation report was the first phase in its efforts to provide the public with more timely data. Soon the bureau will switch to monthly data releases "to promote transparency and provide an opportunity for consumers to review data based on more timely crime counts with the understanding that data will be continuously updated," the FBI emphasized.
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