Dan Bongino criticized media narratives suggesting the FBI is in disarray, arguing that crime data and recent law enforcement operations tell a very different story, including historic declines in violent crime and homicides driven by targeted policing strategies.
Bongino said reports portraying the FBI as ineffective or chaotic ignore basic crime statistics.
“It’s all, you know, here’s another one. While you’re on the topic, you know, I saw this story a couple, a couple times a rolling, you know, the place is in chaos. I was like, Well, how, by what metric is it in chaos?” Bongino said.
He pointed to national crime trends as evidence that the opposite is true.
“You know, it’s a, well, the world’s gonna be a dangerous place, because the FBI is, in case, I’d be like, the violent crime rates the lowest it’s been in two decades. The homicide rates down. 20% is the lowest ever recorded,” he said.
Bongino said media critics dismiss those numbers by claiming the FBI does not focus on homicides, a point he rejected.
“And then you get these DIP shits in the media. Well, the FBI doesn’t, doesn’t do homicides, really. The FBI does gangs, RICO, VICAR and gangs, guys, you may Justin, did you know this? Gangs kill people?” Bongino said.
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He said gang enforcement has a direct impact on violent crime, citing a major federal initiative.
“We did this violent crime initiative so that, I think we were really proud Operation Summer Heat. Summer Heat, yeah, Summer Heat was awesome. They crushed it,” Bongino said.
Bongino said the operation resulted in tens of thousands of arrests.
“So I’m like, 30,000 arrests,” he said.
He described internal meetings where law enforcement leaders focused on identifying repeat violent offenders, noting how rare murderers actually are within the general population.
“I said, you know, how many murderers Do you know in your personal life? And they were like, looking at me like I was crazy. I said, None, right? You don’t know any. And I said, it’s because they’re rare,” Bongino said.
He said a small fraction of the population is responsible for most violent crime.
“You know, something like point 5% of the violent crimes, no, excuse me, 70% of violent crimes committed by point 5% of the population,” he said.
Bongino added that those offenders are often repeat criminals.
“And all of those people have been arrested, or have been arrested on average, eight to 12 times,” he said.
According to Bongino, focusing enforcement efforts on that group produced measurable results.
“I said bottom line, if we go pick these people off with gang collars, Rico collars, and something else, the murder rate is going to plunge, and it did,” he said.
Bongino said the strategy was simple and effective.
“It wasn’t complicated. It just happens,” he said.
He argued that removing repeat offenders from the streets naturally reduces violence.
“That’s what happens when you get shit heads off the street, is they don’t do bad stuff. It’s not really complicated,” Bongino said.
He compared the approach to traditional policing principles.
“It wasn’t rocket science, broken windows policing 101,” he said.
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