U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland talks about violent crime and drugs in Wichita

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland stopped in Wichita on Thursday to talk about efforts to stop violent crime and drug trafficking through ongoing partnerships between the Department of Justice, federal law enforcement field offices and local police departments.

Wichita was his last stop on a tour through Idaho, South Dakota, New Mexico and Kansas. Garland gave a five-minute opening statement to news organizations and took no questions.

Garland then had a closed-door meeting with officials including Wichita Police Chief Joseph Sullivan and Sedgwick County Sheriff Jeff Easter. It was Garland’s first trip to Wichita. He was appointed by President Joe Biden and has served as the top law enforcement in the United States since March 2021.

“Our strategy, the initiative, beginning of my term at the Justice Department, was to build on those collaborations (with local law enforcement), make sure they worked as smoothly as possible, and then to fortify them with the latest technological advances that we now have for finding the biggest drivers of violent crime and taking those people off the streets,” Garland said.

“Now, we have seen results,” he said. “Here in Kansas, violent crime was down 3.7% last year, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. And nationwide, we saw one of the lowest violent crime rates in 50 years, and the largest drop in homicides in 50 years.”

The total number of violent crimes (murders, rapes, robberies, aggravated assaults and batteries) in Kansas dropped by 3.7% in 2023 compared with 2022, from 13,808 to 13,294. But the violent crime index rate (the number of violent crimes per 1,000 people) was 9.8% above the 10-year average, the KBI report says.

Garland said the drop in violent crime nationwide has been “uneven and that, in many communities, violent crime has not fallen.”

“We also know that there is no level of violent crime that is acceptable, so the Justice Department is working here in Kansas and across the country to arrest violent felons, to seize and trace drugs used in crimes and to disrupt drug trafficking,” Garland said.