|
|
|
When Obama
took office |
As Trump
takes office |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arrest-related deaths (involving homicide by law enforcement) | This four-fold increase does not represent a huge increase in the number of people killed by police; rather, it reflects a change in methodology, after it became clear in 2014 that the government had been vastly undercounting those deaths. The new counting method takes into consideration media reports of deaths that aren’t always reported to the government by local police. (The value shown for 2016 is the estimated annualized rate. | Sources: 1, 2) | 404 (2008) | 1,900 (2016) |
| Law enforcement officers feloniously killed in the line of duty | This number jumps around from year to year, but long-term trends are generally positive: In the early 1990s, officers were killed at twice the rate. Still, there is concern about the steady increase in the reported incidents of assaults on officers over the past few years. (Sources: 1, 2) | 41 (2008) | 66 (2016) |
| Violent crime rate | The violent crime rate was much lower in 2015 than 2008, continuing a general decline in crime rates since the 1990s. However, Americans’ opinions haven’t tracked with that; Gallup found in 2013 that Americans’ perceptions of crime levels have not fallen off with that crime rate. (Sources: 1, 2) | 454.5 per 100,000 (2008) | 372.6 per 100,000 (2015) |