President Joe Biden’s policies have not contributed to a decrease in violent crime, multiple sources told the Daily Caller, despite the Biden-Harris administration seizing on a recent report that seemed to show major cities were safer in 2024.

One liberal-run city is a “dystopian hell,” remarked a police union representative to the Caller. Additionally, changes in reporting protocols create the “illusion” of safety, according to one law enforcement officer.

A report by the Major Cities Chiefs Association captured data on violent crime from 69 cities. New York City was not included because it did not submit violent crime numbers for the first half of this year. An Axios analysis of the data found a 6% overall decrease in violent crime in the first half of 2024 compared to the first six months of 2023. The data appeared to show steep drops in violent crime, including a 41% drop in Columbus, Ohio – the largest decline in the country.

Officers in the city, however, face a starkly different reality.

Lies, Damned Lies, And Crime Statistics

“Our officers and the citizens they serve are still battling violent crime daily,” Brian Steel, President of the Ninth Capital City Lodge Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) in Ohio, told the Caller. “Recent changes in crime reporting have done little more than create the illusion that all is well.”

Steel provided the Caller with the Columbus Police Department’s Homicide Reporting protocol. Police Chief Elaine Bryant took office in 2021, and the protocol was subsequently updated in 2022.

The department’s “annual homicide clearance rate” is determined based on FBI standards, according to the protocol.

The clearance rate is derived from “the total number of new homicides in a calendar year” and “the total number of homicides that are cleared that calendar year, regardless of the year the homicide occurred,” the document reads.

Steel explained how this transition impacts homicide statistics.

If a detective solved a cold case in 2024, but the homicide was committed in 2020, then that case goes toward the clearance rate for 2024. The policy increases the clearance rate and “makes itself better,” Steel added, but it didn’t used to be that way.

The FBI switched from its century-old method of collecting crime data to the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) in 2021. The left-leaning Marshall Project reported that almost 40% of law enforcement agencies did not submit data in 2021 to NIBRS, including New York City and Los Angeles.

Nebraska’s FOP President Anthony Conner told the Caller about his experience with changes in how crime is reported, although he argued homicide numbers are the best metric “because you can’t hide a dead body.”

He explained how when he first started on the police force over 20 years ago, if there was a shooting at a house, every person inside was documented as a felony assault victim.

“Well, they decided to change that,” Conner told the Caller. He stated that now, if police cannot identify the intended target, the charge is downgraded from a felony assault to a misdemeanor property crime.

Paul Ware, a 30-year law enforcement veteran and retired Portland, Oregon, police officer of 21 years, told the Caller some cities are not reporting all their crimes.

“They’re reporting the lesser crimes,” Ware told the Caller. “And so decreasing crime is, quite frankly, not real, because all they’re doing is reclassifying the crimes that they have on the streets into something other than exactly what it was.”

There is an incentive for cities to report lower levels of crime, California FOP President Roger Hilton explained to the Caller. He pointed to a July investigation published by the San Francisco Chronicle that revealed Oakland “overstated” its drop in crime.

Hilton stated California adopted measures that enable crime, specifically Proposition 47.

“Cops have limited tools to arrest people, and if they do arrest them, they’re out faster, before we can even finish writing the report,” Hilton told the Caller.

Voters approved Proposition 47 in 2014, and it demoted the classification of most nonviolent drug and property felonies to misdemeanors, according to Ballotpedia. This includes theft and fraud amounting up to $950.

Hilton also noted how charges can be downgraded during the sentencing process.

“As it goes through the criminal justice system, sometimes a lot of charges get dropped along the way,” he said, noting how the FBI gets its information from other law enforcement agencies.

“It’s hard for me to say how all of those things are all reported, and I doubt that they’re very consistent,” Hilton told the Caller.

Where Violent Crime Has Decreased, It’s Not Because Of The Biden Administration

The Axios analysis of the MCCA report showed Omaha, Nebraska, experienced a 30% decrease in violent crime.

Conner told the Caller violent crime decreased in Omaha because the police department cracked down on gang violence.

“Omaha has a Republican mayor who has been very supportive of law enforcement,” Conner said. Omaha’s Police Chief was instrumental in restructuring the department to effectively tackle gang violence, he noted.

The County District Attorney actually prosecutes homicides, unlike a lot of DAs around the country who are letting criminals free, according to Conner. 

Conner said due to officer shortages, however, Omaha’s violent crime could start trending the other way. “We are down 126 officers, maybe even more than that now,” he told the Caller, noting the department is roughly 14% short of officers.

The Biden-Harris administration capitalized on the report and said violent crime hit a “record” 50-year low in the first part of 2024 in an August press release. The White House claimed its gun control polices and “American Rescue Plan” contributed to the decrease in violent crime.

Executive Director for Right On Crime and former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman disagreed, stressing crime is primarily a local issue.

“The policies that he’s talking about, like the background check, expanded background checks and all those things, has had virtually zero to do with any of the rise or the fall in the dropping crime,” Tolman told the Caller. “And I’ve yet to hear them articulate a policy they implemented that would.”

He explained the main deterrent is predictability, or when individuals believe they are going to be caught and punished for violating the law.

“You can lengthen sentence. You can shorten the sentence. You can do things that have no impact on deterring crime, but the predictability is the only factor,” he said.

The Manhattan Institute’s Heather Mac Donald told the Caller funding is essentially meaningless if people do not want to join the police force.

“There’re still departments that are completely unable to recruit and hold on to the officers that they’ve got,” she said. “Frankly, crime and policing are very local matters. There’s not a heck of a lot the federal government can do in terms of crime tactics and strategies.”

She emphasized the Biden admin should change its rhetoric if it actually wanted to help law enforcement.

“The one thing it should avoid doing is demoralizing the cops by calling them racist.”

The End Result Of Progressive Policies: ‘A Dystopian Hell’

One of the cities that reportedly experienced a drop in crime was Oakland, California – but locals tell a different story.

“If you walk around Oakland now, it is like a dystopian hell,” Sam Singer, who represents the Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA), told the Caller. “And you know, small business are suffering.”

The OPOA sent a letter to the office of Mayor Sheng Tao calling for her to resign by Aug. 8, NBC Bay Area reported. They blamed Tao and the City Council majority for slashing the police force from 712 to 678 officers.

He said the OPOA is doubtful about the reported decrease in crime.

“Anyone who lives or works in Oakland, in the neighborhoods, small businesses, even major businesses, sees violent crime is out of control in the city, and the police force is essentially at half the strength it ought to be.”

Singer claimed “progressive leftists” in the city’s government defunded the police at a time when more police officers were needed.

Across the country, Americans are feeling the effects of rampant crime in major cities. In downtown Seattle, for example, a massive development project was stalled due in part to “open-air drug markets,” among other illegal activities.