Violent Crime Down 9.3% in 2025 - Property Crime Down 12.4%
FBI announces US violent crime rate plummeted by fastest rate in nearly 90 years
U.S. violent crime rates in 2025 saw the largest decrease since 1937, according to FBI nationwide crime data.

Last year, murder and non-negligent manslaughter dropped by more than 18% across the U.S., and aggravated assault dropped by more than 7%, per the preliminary report from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program on national 2025 crime rates, the New York Post reported. The data was collected from over 17,000 law enforcement agencies, which cover about 96% of policing in the U.S.

Overall, violent crime decreased by about 9.3% in 2025, according to the data. Rape dropped by nearly 8%, and robbery decreased by about 18.5%, the FBI reported.

Property crime also fell by about 12.4% between 2024 and 2025.

“The 2025 crime data in this report shows the single largest decrease in violent crime and murder since 1937 – as well as huge decreases across the board in terms of aggravated assault, rape, and robbery,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.

From 2025 to 2024, there were about 1.1 million fewer violent crimes committed, and a decrease of roughly 5.2 million property crimes, according to the data.

About 47% of violent crimes — more than 400,000 — were cleared with arrests, in addition to about 17% — 868,000 — of property crimes.

Last year, about 53 police officers were killed in the line of duty, and more than 90,000 were assaulted. Another 28 police officers died accidentally while on the job. komonews.com  nypost.com


Retailers Navigate Privacy and Crime Tech
Balancing privacy and AI legislation with retail safety technology

Retail and tech partners must commit to governance and communication on use and benefits

As retailers and communities across the nation confront high levels of retail theft, violence and organized retail crime, many are looking toward advanced technologies to protect workers, customers and assets. Tools such as AI-enabled cameras, intelligence video analytics, facial recognition and body-worn cameras have become essential in identifying threats, deterring repeat offenders, de-escalating violence and accelerating investigations.

But here in the United States, these powerful emerging technologies intersect directly with privacy legislation — a space where lawmakers must balance civil liberties and consumer privacy with urgent safety and security needs.

Several U.S. states have introduced and are advancing well-intentioned legislation that risks prohibiting some of these safety-critical technologies. While aimed at individual privacy protection, several introduced bills contain such broad restrictions into a retailer’s use of biometric data that it could affect routine safety capabilities — capabilities that could assist consumers against fraud, detect lost or abducted children, or prevent a known violent offender from causing harm during repeated theft of goods.

Additionally, some states may impose such strict notice or consent requirements for use of these technologies that it fragments the overall regulatory environment, causing compliance complexity for multi-state retailers.

Transparency around the purpose of its use in a location, communication around data capture and retention, and clear standards are all critical for the responsible deployment of these safety and security technologies.

For lawmakers, the path forward requires nuance and education. There’s no question that privacy protections must remain strong, especially for sensitive consumer and biometric data. However, legislators should recognize that retailers today operate in a uniquely different environment involving theft, crime and violence. The National Retail Federation provides an educational platform for legislators seeking a greater understanding how the use of these technologies in the retail environment will improve safety, security and crime prevention.

Striking a balance is essential. Regulations that are too restrictive or ambiguous can unintentionally limit a retailer’s ability to provide a safe working and shopping environment. Privacy and security are not opposing forces — they must be complementary to provide safe, trustworthy and resilient retail environments. nrf.com


'Unchecked Retail Theft' Closes Another Store
Another Walgreens Is Closing in Chicago—Blame Criminals, Not the Company

As the store withdraws from the South Side, Alderman William Hall refuses to address the obvious problem: unchecked retail theft.

Walgreens is pulling out of Chicago’s South Side, home to some of the city’s most crime-ridden areas. The closure of a store in the city’s Chatham neighborhood, set for June 4, marks the seventh Walgreens location to shut down on the South Side in the past year.

Who’s to blame for this departure? Chicago Alderman William Hall, who represents Chatham as part of Ward 6, blames the company. Walgreens, he said, should be charged with “first-degree corporate abandonment” for creating a “medicine drought,” and he even accused it of committing a “pharmaceutical genocide.” (It’s particularly rich that Hall is now castigating Walgreens for closing, given that he hadn’t been happy about Walgreens opening, alleging it “ran out” small, local businesses.)

Hall is right to be concerned that residents and seniors with chronic health conditions may suffer. But criminals, not corporations, are to blame for the closures. Strengthening both policing and prosecution of property crimes is the key to bringing Walgreens and other businesses back to the South Side. Rhetoric like Hall’s, by contrast, continues to send the message that Chicago is closed for business.

Walgreens has been clear that crime is the problem. At a town hall on May 9, executives revealed that the Chatham store lost more than $1 million last year due to shoplifting and declining prescription sales. The location loses 16 percent of its inventory to theft—four times the company average, according to Walgreens’ regional vice president.

Like many stores reeling from the national surge of retail theft, the Chatham Walgreens was forced to install lock boxes to protect merchandise. And it spent more than $400,000 a year on security guards. Yet criminals were undeterred. Thieves broke the locks, leaped over counters to steal liquor and cigarettes, and assaulted workers. city-journal.org


Retail Theft is Turning More Violent
Shoplifting incidents escalate as violence, organized crime draw federal attention
What was once a simple act of shoplifting has, in some cases, escalated into more dangerous and violent encounters.

A recent incident at a Henderson Costco on St Rose Parkway on Saturday highlighted that shift. Henderson police said a suspect attempting to steal a laptop sprayed mace at an employee while trying to flee before 2 p.m., prompting customers to cover their faces as the situation unfolded.

Legal experts said such actions can elevate the severity of the crime.

“Once you start using violence or force in order to retain the item, or the threat of force to retain the item, then it becomes a robbery,” Frank Coumou, a retired Clark County prosecutor and current defense attorney with De Castroverde Law Group said.

Coumou said the use of mace or any weapon can significantly increase potential penalties, turning a theft into a violent felony that may carry years in prison.

“If they use something to retain property in order to take it out of the store, whether they use a gun or they punch an employee or they use mace, in this particular instance, they're trying to retain this property from the rightful owner or an agent of the owner in order to steal it,” Coumou said. “So now it becomes a very serious crime, a crime of violence that carries anywhere between two and 15 years.”

Law enforcement officials said the issue extends beyond isolated incidents. Many thefts are tied to organized groups that resell stolen goods for profit.

The trend has drawn attention at the federal level, with Nevada Democratic Reps. Susie Lee and Dina Titus are helping spearhead legislation aimed at combating organized retail crime.

The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act( CORCA) recently passed the U.S. House with bipartisan support. The legislation would strengthen coordination among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and create a federal coordination center within Homeland Security Investigations to target organized theft rings. news3lv.com


New Tough-on-Crime Approach
Prison sentences for retail theft doubled in 2025, according to report studying State’s Attorney Burke policies
A court-monitoring group that studied policy changes during the first 500 days of Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke’s leadership found in a new report that prison sentences for retail theft more than doubled last year, alleging that the top prosecutor returned “to the tough-on-crime prosecution that weakened Cook County communities for decades” when she took over from former State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

The findings are not surprising, given that Burke reversed a number of Foxx’s policies after running on a platform that was more tough on crime than the former progressive prosecutor, even as the report shows a continued divide between Burke and progressive groups advocating for criminal justice reform.

In a statement, Burke’s office said it is “committed to strengthening public safety by taking dangerous weapons off our streets, supporting and seeking justice on behalf of victims, protecting survivors of domestic violence, combating crime on public transit and deterring violent offenders from inflicting harm on our neighborhoods.” chicagotribune.com


ICYMI: UK expands crackdown on organized retail crime networks

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