WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI says the number of violent crimes reported to police decreased 3.8 percent last year to 1.2 million, the fifth straight year of declines.

Meanwhile, the amount of property crime reported to law enforcement agencies went down by 0.5 percent to 9 million, the ninth consecutive year that figure has fallen.

The South accounted for 41.3 percent of violent crime, while the West had 22.9 percent of it. The Midwest claimed 19.5 percent of the cases and the Northeast, 16.2 percent.

The FBI said firearms were used in two-thirds of the nation's murders, in two out of every five robberies and in one out of five aggravated assaults.

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