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However the statistics come out, most citizens today feel that the social contract has been all but rent by the savagery of U.S. crime (see box next page). Yet Nixon's chief adviser on domestic affairs, John D. Ehrlichman, strongly disagrees. "The social contract lives," he said in an interview. "We have brought the rate of increase of crime down. The country is in materially better shape than when we took over." And, in fact, although the key crimes of rape and aggravated assault are still increasing, the FBI's latest statistics show that the growth in all crime slowed to 1% for the first six months of 1972, compared with 7% for the same period last year. There are even signs that the rate may actually decline during the second half of this year. Already, robbery and auto theft have decreased by 4% each. As Nixon said, citing those figures, "If we get the chance, we will turn it around."
Reports from each of TIME's U.S. bureaus largely confirm the FBI figures and suggest that the U.S. crime rate, though cruelly high, is finally leveling off. While crime continues to rise in rural and suburban areas, Washington, New York, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco are among 72 cities reporting an actual drop in major crimes. "I am not what you would call a starry-eyed dreamer," says Detroit Commissioner John Nichols, "but I am tempted to say that law enforcement is on the eve of a golden age. Now we are getting the money we need, we are developing the expertise we've always needed, and we are getting public attention and interest." Adds Wayne County Sheriff William Lucas: "A while ago the criminals were driving 1970 Cadillacs, and we were chugging after them in 1928 Fords. Last year they were driving 1972s, but we were in 1970s. We are getting professional—fast."
One problem with Nixon's oratory about "law-and-order" is that the President of the U.S. has little direct responsibility for crime in the streets (except in Washington, D.C.). Nixon can inveigh against "permissive judges," as he recently did, and he can appoint to the federal judiciary men he considers of sterner stuff, but federal courts normally do not try muggers, just as federal police do not normally pursue murderers. What the President can do is to urge Congress to provide money, and that Nixon has done.
The centerpiece of the Nixon program is the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. Only four years old, LEAA has already received $1.5 billion; it will get $850 million next year. Much of this money has been distributed as grants to various states, with state officials deciding how to spend the funds. "It's allowed us to do more than we could ever have done without it, from computerizing crime information to tripling the serving of warrants," says Los Angeles Lieut. Dick Bongard. Citing new educational programs for officers in the social sciences, criminology and police management, as well as the purchase of new and better equipment, Boston Police Superintendent Jeremiah Sullivan says, "We've gotten a big boost from LEAA."