The FBI [official website] released preliminary statistics [materials] Tuesday outlining US crime metrics from January through June 2017, which indicated a downward trend in violent crime and rise in the homicide rate.

In the first half of 2017 the violent crime rate fell by 0.8 percent in comparison with the same period last year. In both 2015 and 2016 the crime rates had increased [JURIST report] modestly from historical lows, which was a campaign issue for President Donald Trump.

In conjunction with these findings, Attorney General Jeff Sessions [official site] published an op-ed [text] in USA Today praising the Trump administration and his efforts at reducing the rate:

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. … For the first time in the past few years, the American people can hope for a safer future.

While Sessions recognized the homicide rate had increased again, he remarked that the uptick had slowed.

The statistical information is organized by population group, region, consecutive years from 2013-2017, and cities/states with a population over 100,000. This preliminary date will be used in the compilation of an annual crime report that will be released by the FBI later this year.