The FBI director, Kash Patel, confirmed this Tuesday in a hearing before the U.S. Senate that the Donald Trump administration has managed to reduce the number of homicides in the country, while increasing arrests of violent criminals, rescues of child victims, and the capture of the agency's 10 most wanted fugitives.
The agency head defended the use of Flock cameras, stating that this technology has helped track down kidnapped children, and pleaded for more funding to combat the two emerging threats of drones and artificial intelligence. "This has been the most prolific crime reduction streak in U.S. history," Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
To achieve this historic crime reduction, Patel pointed out that FBI agents were deployed to crime-ridden cities like Memphis (Tennessee) and Baltimore, which have experienced drastic drops in crime rates. The official cited national figures: 31,000 members of violent gangs arrested, 11,081 child victims located, 5,072 child traffickers apprehended, and 1,100 potential terrorist acts thwarted.
Democrats claimed that Patel is a "bully" and accused him of taking too many vacation days, to which Patel responded that he has taken fewer days off than either of his two predecessors, Christopher A. Wray and James B. Comey.
Another opposition figure, Senator Adam Schiff from California, alleged that FBI agents who worked on investigations against President Trump were fired for political reasons. Patel clarified that most of those agents had already retired even before he took office at the FBI in February 2025.
