U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland convened a panel at the Department of Justice Friday to discuss violent crime in the United States, efforts to combat it and how to share those methods with areas of the country that need it.
Speaking to reporters as the meeting began, Garland, along with Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monoco, said they are also addressing what Garland called “a deeply disturbing” spike in threats against public servants, including law enforcement personnel, judges, members of Congress and election workers.
Agencies represented at the meeting included the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Marshalls and other department officials.
The attorney general said recent data shows encouraging progress against violent crime nationwide, with the FBI reporting a 6% drop in homicides nationally from 2021 to 2022, and the Major Cities Police Chiefs association reporting a double-digit drop in murders in 69 major U.S. cities in the past year.
Garland credits his department’s violent crime reduction strategy launched in 2021 in response to a spike in crime during the pandemic.
The strategy, he said, includes sharing technological tools with state and local enforcement officials. The department has also shared prosecutorial tools to help state and local agencies arrest and convict repeat offenders and criminal organizations that Garland called the principal drivers of violent crime.
The attorney general said statutes under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act provided new tools for prosecuting those who illegally obtain guns, such as minors. He said in the 18 months since the law was passed, the department has kept 527 firearms out of the hands of young people.
Garland said Friday’s meeting is meant to evaluate some of those successes and see how they can be replicated in places that have not seen the same improvements.
He mentioned the nation’s capital, Washington D.C., in particular, which saw a 39% increase in violent crime overall in 2023, with a 35% spike in murders.
Garland said he would have an announcement about efforts to address crime in Washington at a later time.
Regarding threats against those who serve the public, Garland said in just the final months of 2023, the Justice Department investigated and charged individuals with making violent threats against FBI agents, federal judges — including a supreme court justice — members of Congress, presidential candidates and elections workers.
The attorney general said several bomb threats were made against courthouses across the country just this week. On Thursday, he said, an individual was arrested and charged with threatening to kill a member of Congress and his children.
“These threats are unacceptable,” Garland said, adding that Friday’s meeting was designed to find ways to double down on the department’s efforts to combat them. “They threaten the fabric of our democracy.”
