A former FBI special agent slammed Democrats Thursday for the "politicization of law enforcement" as cities nationwide fail to report crucial crime data for last year.
Former FBI special agent and former Navy SEAL Jonathan T. Gilliam joined "Fox & Friends First" to discuss the impact the lack of reporting has on tracking violence in city streets.
"I try to stay neutral when I look at these things and say that this is a reason or that's a reason without the politics, but the reality is, and law enforcement is becoming more and more beholden to leftist mayors and governors and even the president," Gilliam told co-host Carley Shimkus.
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"So when we look at the cities where these reportings are lagging behind, we're looking at predominantly liberal cities where the majority of crime is taking place," he continued. "And they have a myriad of excuses, but the reality is the politicization of law enforcement is so out of control that we can't even get real statistics."
According to an Axios report, the FBI is missing 40% of crime data for 2021 since law enforcement agencies have failed to send voluntary statistics. This number has spiked 15% since 2020.
"The problem is, if somebody is subscribed to the Democrat or liberal way, they are 100% across the board, local, state and federal, the exact same way in that they handle law enforcement and crime," Gilliam said. "And as we've seen, they do nothing effectively even after this last shooting in Texas.
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"They've come up with nothing that is going to be successful in stopping anything, so it's just going to get worse," he continued.
Violent crime has surged in a series of cities nationwide, with some cities seeing a spike of nearly 40% in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to Fox News Digital. New York City topped the charts, seeing a 40.6% increase in violent crime last year.