WASHINGTON—FBI Director Kash Patel said Nov. 26 that homicide rates nationwide fell by double digits compared to last year.

“I’m happy to announce, finally, that one of the big targets we had for this year, obviously, was to reduce the murder rate across America,” Patel told The Epoch Times’ Jan Jekielek, during an exclusive interview set to air at 5 p.m. ET on Nov. 29.

“This FBI is going to be releasing murder rates in December, which is the lowest it has been in modern history, by double digits.”

The murder rate in 2024 was 5 per 100,000 people, down 15.8 percent from the year before and about 1 percent higher than in 2015, according to Department of Justice data published in August.

Approximately 17,000 people were murdered in the United States in 2024, representing a drop of about 15 percent from the prior year but an increase of nearly 7 percent from 2015, the statistics show.

More details about this year’s data are coming in next month, according to Patel.

He applauded the work of agents responsible for investigations that netted 30,000 arrests since January, including 25,000 people charged with violent crimes, for improving public safety.

“We are over double the amount of arrests of violent offenders this calendar year, and we still have December to go,” Patel said.

The director tasked the bureau with dismantling criminal organizations that harm children, including the notorious 764 network based in Texas.

He announced a 490 percent increase in arrests targeting the organization year-over-year.

“That’s how hard we’re going after this disgusting group of individuals, these criminals, and we’re not going to stop until we safeguard the online community,” Patel said.

He highlighted other efforts to safeguard minors, including the recovery of approximately 6,000 children by the FBI this year, a 25 percent increase from 2024.

Agents also prioritized the eradication of foreign intelligence networks operating illegally in the United States.

The bureau recorded 40 percent more espionage arrests—including spies from China, Russia, and Iran, among others—compared to last year.

“We are actually disrupting them,” Patel said. “We’re kicking them out of our networks, we’re bringing them to trial, and we’re putting them in prison. That’s a very powerful public display of force.”

Increased efficiency and greater productivity are a result of the agency’s restructuring, according to the director.

When Patel took office, about 12,000 of the bureau’s nearly 37,000 agents were stationed near the bureau’s headquarters.

“I felt that the FBI workforce was too concentrated in what we call the national capital region, the area around Washington, D.C.,” Patel said.

He redirected personnel to offices across the country and placed 1,000 more agents in the streets.

With more resources available to offices nationwide, the agency is better able to manage operations and identify areas of concern, according to the director.

“The results speak for themselves,” Patel said. “We’re going to keep pushing as hard as we can.”

Reports from the ground are encouraging, he said.

“That cultural change has been well received by the field, and that’s the only audience I care about,” Patel said.

“I don’t care about what the media thinks and how they falsely report that we are debilitating our functions as an FBI.”