A 12 percent drop in the US murder rate is wild. And I say that as someone who has been spitting stats and rolling my eyes at people who say "crime has gotten so bad..."
It hasn't been "bad" by any real metric since the late 90s and even when it was "bad" if you're middle class (and not at risk of domestic violence*) you have zero things to worry about even in 1989.
*domestic violence improved for a few decades but then stalled. But, when people fret about crime this isn't what they mean.
