There are lies, damn lies and statistics.
. They can cook the books however they want by re-defining terms/classifications and by some of these "restorative justice" DAs not filing charges or filing charges that are so watered down they don't reflect the nature of the offense.
This is also true...
Sadly, this is a game that gets played at the municipal and state level much more than the federal level though.. the fed just takes advantage of it by claiming "victory" whenever a stat goes down..
an example I can give from my own personal experience... 25+ years ago I was assigned to a "vice" type unit for a little while.. we were mostly focused on "pocket dope" (picking off the street level dealers and junkies) and prostitution rings.. but also dabbled in other "street" level crimes (illegal firearms sales, gang activities, etc)..
while assigned to a regional task force, the team I was on had jurisdictional authority across a fairly large area that included both major metro and rural communities..
We had a particular mayor and a chief of police in one of the major metro suburbs that absolutely refused to enforce any drug or prostitution cases within their suburbs schools...
Everyone that lived within 20 miles of this particular place knew that the high school in this suburb was completely out of control, overrun by the gangs, dope being delt on campus in high volumes, etc..
But.. since no dope related arrests were ever made... the city could report it had the lowest drug crime rates of any school district in that part of the state..
Shameful, shitty, abhorrent, politically motivated behavior... but unfortunately not uncommon in some places..
If its not the mayor or senior police administrators playing statistics games, its the DA's, judges, etc..