According to the feds, violent crime was down in 2009.

AP: 

Violent crime in the South fell by 6.6 percent, dropped 5.6 percent in the West, declined 4.6 percent in the Midwest and went down 3.5 percent in the Northeast.

Violent crime declined 4 percent in metropolitan counties and 3 percent elsewhere, the FBI reported.

Nationwide, the murder rate was down 7.2 percent last year.

The largest decrease in murders - 7.5 percent - took place in cities of half a million to a million in population.

So how does Seattle stack up?

SPD has only released statistics through march, but overall rported violent crime appears to be down 10%.

Homicides are down 20% over the same period last year, robberies are down 14%, assaults are down 5%, and rape is down 19%.

We're checking to see when SPD will be releasing stats for April.