Biden to deliver address over soaring crime rates in US major cities

The President is likely to highlight funding for law enforcement and Justice Department initiatives to curb rampant crimes, local media reported.

"It's an opportunity for the President to speak to what he's going to do to help address that," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. "And as we've seen around the country, it's a concern of many Americans. Republicans, but also Democrats, too. Not necessarily through a partisan lens."

"If you look at the nation's front pages on any given day there's a lot of coverage of crime," said GOP strategist Alex Conant, adding that there are "limits to what the president can do, but I think this is a recognition that crime is the story in a lot of states right now."

The murder rate in the country rose from 5 murders per 100,000 people in 2019 to roughly 6.2 per 100,000 in 2020, though still well below the rates of previous decades, preliminary data from the FBI showed, the Xinhua news agency reported.

A sample of 37 US cities with data for the first three months of this year saw an 18 per cent spike in murders compared to the same time period in 2020, according to a report.

The issue is a potential trouble for Biden and Democratic lawmakers ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.