Mayor, police chief seek federal funds to hire more policemen
19th October 2015 · 0 Comments
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison recently attended a U.S. Department of Justice summit on violent crime in Washington, DC along with nearly two dozen other mayors and police chiefs during which they advocated for the restoration of a President Clinton-era program that sought to hire 100,000 additional law enforcement officers across the U.S.
Nola.com reported that the COPS program operated with a $1.4 billion budget in 1998 but that budget has been whittled down to $154 million in 2015.
With cities across the U.S. grappling with a rise in violent crime, Mayor Landrieu called on Congress to make addressing crime a top priority.
When asked about gun-control legislation, Landrieu told Nola.com that there is widespread support for the introduction of a “thoughtful background check system” to keep guns out of the heads of criminals.
Harrison said New Orleans’ problem with gun violence does not stem from “legally obtained guns” but from “shell purchasers” who are qualified to legally buy guns but sell or give them to people who do not qualify for gun purchases.
On Thursday, Landrieu submitted a 2016 budget to the New Orleans City Council that included a $10.5 million hike in spending for the NOPD.
The mayor’s budget includes funding to boost the NOPD;s ranks by 150 officers, just under $11 million for NOPD overtime pay and an additional $300,000 for NOPD consent decree funding.
The New Orleans City Council is expected to vote on the final city budget on November 19.
In other crime-related news, Michael Anderson, the special agent in charge of the New Orleans FBI field office, left his post after more than three years but sat down with WWL to talk about the challenges associated with fighting crime in the city.
“The priorities of the FBI here in New Orleans continue to shift toward violent crime,” Anderson told WWL News..
Anderson said that fighting violent crime is a priority for the agents in the New Orleans FBI field Office and that they are working with local and state law enforcement.
“We have dedicated more resources to gangs and violent incident crime here than any other program, and it pretty much runs neck and neck with our public corruption program, which has always been very large here.”
Anderson said fighting the gangs in New Orleans can be a challenge because these loosely-knit groups are more neighborhood-based rather than national ones.
“Because you have unsteady leadership. Membership is very fractious. You might have a gang that’s operating one week, and then the next week they’ve broken apart and are fighting with each other,” said Anderson.
He said inexpensive heroin, with purity levels and addiction higher than ever, is a major problem for every neighborhood.
Recent reports confirm that trend, saying that heroin has rapidly become of choice for residents of rural and suburban communities, replacing oxycontin because it is less expensive and easily accessible.
“It’s worse than ever,” Anderson told WWL. “And the problem with heroin, it’s affecting all communities. Now you’ve got people coming into the neighborhoods and the addiction level is so high. Soccer moms are going to need to come in at 8 o’clock in the morning and they are going to need to do their buy,” he said about mothers coming in from the suburbs after dropping their children off at school.
During his tenure at the helm of the New Orleans FBI field office, Anderson created a stand-alone civil rights squad as well as a new squad for sex crimes, which involves trafficking and online crimes against children.
“We are seeing that there is so much prostitution that is going on out there, that is involuntary, that is under coercion, and they are held under debt bondage or through drug addiction, through violence.”
Anderson said the solution is more community involvement, like social services, more addiction treatment, faith-based partners, jobs and re-entry training programs for those coming out of prison.
Law enforcement alone can’t arrest the community out of the violence.
On a personal note, Anderson told WWL that he has enjoyed making a difference in New Orleans and was waiting until the last minute to remove his Black and gold fleur-de-lis pin with the FBI emblem in the center. He added that he’ll miss living near the Mardi Gras parade route the weekend before Fat Tuesday.
“That Wednesday through Sunday, I’m going to miss that. I’m going to miss my pool tournaments at the Shamrock off Carrollton as well,” he said with a laugh.
Anderson also said that progress is being made in the investigation of the armed robberies of three Uptown restaurants.
Residents fed up with crime gathered in neighborhoods and parks across the city to call for an end to crime during Tuesday’s Night Out Against Crime.
St. Aug’s famed Marching 100 entertained residents in St. Roch who came out the meet their neighbors and talk about crime-prevention strategies. Also present were law enforcement officials who mingled with residents and shared strategies for creating safer neighborhoods, FOX 8 News reported.
“If you know your neighbors, you have a safer community,” Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman said.
“It’s about all of us keeping an eye on one another,” NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison told FOX 8.
The gathering in St. Roch Park also gave residents and cops a chance to build bridges and get to know each other better.
“It’s all about reducing fear and reducing tension by having confidence in your police department,” Harrison said.
The weekend before the Night Out Against Crime, police were called out to 13 armed robberies, two home invasions and two aggravated burglaries. On Tuesday morning, a man was shot in New Orleans East during an attempted robbery while walking to a bus stop.
“It makes me sick because there’s just too much going on in this city, this city, it’s too much,” resident Yvonne Henry told FOX 8.
“Innocent people are being affected by crime every day,” Javanti Aguillard said.
Many say they’re fed up, which is precisely the reason why they left the comfort of their homes to show up at the park. The party was one of about 200 across New Orleans.
“When times are hard, people come together,” Augillard said.
“We have to show that we’re not afraid, we’re not gonna run, we’re not gonna hide and events like this get people to understand, they’re not alone,” Tonya Izzard told FOX 8.
About 16,000 communities across the U.S. held National Night Out events of their own. With different goals in each city, the folks here just want a safer environment for themselves and their children.
NOPD officers split up in teams Tuesday night in an effort to stop in at each of the 200 parties across the city. Chief Harrison said it’s important people feel comfortable with officers so they can help the department with tips, to help solve crimes.
This article originally published in the October 19, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
