FBI report tells less about overall state of U.S. crime in 2021: CNN

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released its 2021 Crime in the Nation Report, for which only 63 percent of the country's more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies submitted data, reported CNN on Wednesday.

This had been "the lowest level of participation the FBI has reported since at least 1979" and "only 52 percent of all agencies submitted a full year's worth of data," said the bureau.

Participation was voluntary. Several of the biggest police departments in the country, including the Los Angeles Police Department and the New York Police Department, did not submit any data at all to the FBI last year, according to the FBI.

While crime has become a dominating topic before the incoming midterm elections, it's unclear how useful this latest release was, said CNN.

Factors that have contributed to the low participation rates ranged from technical challenges to low incentives to adapt to the newly-adopted system, and "there hasn't been a lot of political pressure," said CNN.

Last year's crime report saw a nearly 30 percent increase in homicides from 2019, the highest year-over-year increase recorded in FBI history, and "the alarming jump came during a year which saw a global pandemic, massive civil unrest following the police killing of George Floyd, and unique economic and social stressors," CNN quoted the FBI report as saying.