FBI Louisville reports historic decrease in violent crime
– 1 min read
National violent crime fell 9.7% from 2024 to 2025- the largest single-year drop since the FBI began tracking data in 1936- with Kentucky seeing a 6.1% decrease.
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Violent crime in the United States saw its largest year-to-year decline since the FBI began keeping estimates and Kentucky posted a similar drop, according to new federal data released by FBI Louisville this week.
FBI Louisville Special Agent in Charge Olivia Olson spoke to several local media outlets Thursday about the FBI's 2025 Reported Crime in the Nation statistics.
"I'm glad that it was something so obvious that you can see in the numbers now because we are working so well together that I know it would be indicative in the numbers once it came out," she said to WHAS11.
Nationally, violent crime rates decreased 9.7% from 2024 to 2025- marking the largest year-to-year decline in violent crime rates since the FBI began its estimates in 1936.
Here in Kentucky, the trend held, though the drop wasn't quite as steep. Violent crime rates in the Commonwealth decreased 6.1% from 2024 to 2025, Olson said.
Reported U.S. violent crime trends from June 2025 through May 2026 show an overall decrease of 9.0%, broken down as follows:
- Murder: down 18.7%
- Robbery: down 19.4%
- Rape: down 10.0%
- Aggravated assault: down 6.2%
Property crime saw an even steeper decline over that same window, dropping 12.4% overall:
- Motor vehicle theft: down 21.7%
- Burglary: down 16.7%
- Larceny: down 9.9%
Additional statistics from the FBI's Crime Data Explorer are available for those who want to dig further into the numbers.
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Shay McAlister is an award-winning journalist and founder of Shay Informed. After a decade as a reporter and anchor, she launched her ad-free, subscription-based outlet in 2025 to focus on accountability journalism and victim-centric reporting.
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