Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
Things in New Orleans have gone from bad to worse this week.
The city, which is not fully recovered from a 2021 hurricane, was already contending with rampant crime, a potential recall election, the lack of consistent sanitation services, an FBI investigation into alleged abuse of children by area priests, the evaporation of infrastructure, and a mayor who has a taste for taxpayer-funded first-class upgrades.
Now, after the release of data from the Metropolitan Crime Commission, New Orleans gets the added burden of becoming the murder capital of the United States.
According to the commission, through Sept. 11 the city is averaging 52 murders per 100,000 residents. That’s seven higher on average than St. Louis, the previous No. 1.
Former New York Police Department patrol director Fausto Pichardo – who only weeks ago was hired by New Orleans to review ways in which the city’s police department could better combat crime, which was spiking across the board even before the murder data emerged – released a report last week that painted a dreary picture.
In the report, which was acquired by WDSU-TV, a New Orleans NBC affiliate, Pichardo states that “action must be taken now if there is ever a chance to save the city and bring the reputation of being a city where tourists can come to party and celebrate and not become victims.”
Those chances are remarkably high at present. Since 2019, homicides are up by 141%, shootings have increased by 100%, and carjacking has gone up by 210%. Even when compared to 2021, the numbers are abysmal as homicides have spiked by 78% in just a year.
The causes of the problem are myriad, but the most pressing concern is that the city has a critical shortage of police officers. Indeed, central to Pichardo’s plan is the immediate reassignment of several hundred officers from other duties to working patrols.
Additionally, the city is proposing an $80 million package to boost officer pay, offer free healthcare to officers, and pay new hires substantial bonuses.
But the city’s sudden interest in a mass increase in funding for police will take time, and Pichardo’s plan is an adhesive strip stretched over a rather wide wound.
Even as 200-plus officers are reassigned, the concern is that patrols will now be manned by people whose talents lie in administrative areas like detective work and that other critical services will now begin to suffer.
“Somebody breaks into your house, someone steals your car, who is going to be investigating those particular crimes,” New Orleans City Council Member Helena Moreno asked rhetorically to WDSU.
Moreno went on to recommend that the city seek to mirror the likes of Baltimore and Phoenix, which have created civilian investigator positions.