The U.S. saw uniform drops in killings, shootings, robberies and rapes for the second straight year, according to the FBI’s annual report on crime trends across the country.

The bureau’s Crime in the Nation report for 2024, published Tuesday, also showed declines in property crime, particularly the motor vehicle thefts that spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, and hate crime.

“Relevant data helps police fight violent crime by aiding in resource allocation, and it helps families learn more about their communities,” FBI Assistant Director Timothy Ferguson said Tuesday during a media call.

Mr. Ferguson said the agency plans to release national crime data on a monthly basis to “produce an even more timely and accurate picture of crimes in the United States.”

By the numbers, the FBI said violent crime fell 4.5% overall, with murder and manslaughter seeing a precipitous 14.5% decline — the lowest rate in nine years. Rapes dropped 5.2%, assaults 3% and robberies nearly 9% last year.

Property crime fell 8% in 2024, with burglaries down 8.6% and thefts 5.5%.

Most noticeably, motor vehicle thefts declined 18.6%. It marked a sharp reversal of the nationwide surge from the “Kia Boyz” challenge, a social media fad that showed people how to hotwire older model Hyundais and Kias with USB cords.

Hate crimes fell 1.5% in 2024, following a 2% increase in the bias crimes in 2023. The FBI did say that last year had more known hate crime offenders versus 2023.

Officials said 64 police officers died in “felonious killings” on the job last year, while 43 officers were accidentally killed, largely from traffic incidents. The agency noted that there was a 10-year high in cops assaulted on the job, with 85,730 officers attacked.

The data further show a decrease in the number of arrests made last year.

The FBI noted a 4.2% drop in violent crime arrests for juveniles and a 5.3% decline in those same types of arrests for adults. And while juvenile property crime arrests also fell 5.3%, adult arrests in that category rose 3.9%.

Federal law enforcement said 16,675 agencies submitted data for the Uniform Crime Reporting program, a 2.1% increase in the police departments offering statistics for the annual report from 2023. The participating agencies cover almost 96% of the U.S. population.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.