Armed robberies on the rise in New Orleans
23rd November 2015 · 0 Comments
Despite the NOPD’s efforts to get a handle on violent crime, recent numbers show that armed robberies are on the rise in the city and threatening to eclipse last year’s total, which represents a four-year high.
WWL reported that over the past four months, the undermanned police department has fielded at least 90 calls reporting armed robberies every month. The victims have included people on the street, businesses, residents going in and out of their homes and college students on or near campus, prompting many residents to ask what can be done to address this growing problem.
According to WWL, when an armed suspect robbed a Payless Shoe Store in Gentilly two weeks ago, it didn’t make headlines. But to the workers inside and at the business next door, the armed robbery left them shaken.
“The area around here is really concerned,” Uniforms by Logo Express manager Shannon Sanchez told WWL. “It’s really unnerving for everybody.”
After the armed robbery, Sanchez met with the store’s employees to review their safety precautions.
“Just be a little bit more cautious. We don’t always stay on guard walking to our cars, or letting someone in the door. At any given moment that you feel uneasy with somebody, something, we have a signal, and we’re definitely…going to take our steps and measures,” Sanchez said.
There were 113 armed robbery calls in August, 94 in September, 91 in October, and November is on pace to top 100. If that pace holds up, it would be the first time since 2010 that the city saw four consecutive months of at least 90 armed robberies.
“Society nowadays, they have no morals,” Dina Roth of 24/7 Discount told WWL. “They just want to keep taking from everyone, and everybody is trying to build their lives, and they can’t get anywhere doing that.”
Roth occasionally works at the 24/7 Discount Store on Tulane Avenue. Police reported that on Nov. 12 an armed robber pulled a gun on the clerk and took off with cash.
Roth said that section near Tulane and Claiborne needs more police.
“I want to see more police patrol the area, especially at night,” she said. “Everybody thinks because of the hospital and all this is a safe area. That’s not true.”
It is true, however, that the NOPD is in the midst of a severe manpower crisis, the worst it has faced in four decades. The department has one of the nation’s slowest response times, and while overall gun violence has decreased over the last two years, these businesses say they’re just not seeing the difference on the street.
“Personally I don’t feel that there’s enough patrolling. You do see them, but it’s few and far between. Honestly, and I understand that they’re understaffed, but then we need to pull together as a community to do what we need to protect ourselves.”
NOPD officials released a statement about the rise in armed robberies that said:
“The NOPD and the community share a strong partnership and we are committed to relentlessly pursuing individuals who commit crime. This year, we have made approximately 280 arrests for armed robberies, and some of those arrested are responsible for multiple incidents. We will not rest until every neighborhood in New Orleans is a safe neighborhood.”
Police said last week that they are looking for two men who tied up two Tulane University students and robbed them in their apartment Sunday afternoon Nov. 15, WWL News reported.
According to campus police, at about 4:30 p.m., two men barged into an apartment in the 800 block of Broadway Street, tied up one Tulane student, demanded drugs, and began searching the apartment.
While the suspects were searching the uptown New Orleans apartment, another roommate walked in. That student was “threatened at gunpoint, asked for drugs, and tied up,” Tulane police said in a report of the incident.
Authorities described the suspects as male, white, late 20’s to 30’s, 6-feet-1, 160-170 pounds, medium build, low cut black hair, light scruffy beard, chest tattoos, blue jeans, blue hoodie, armed with a black and green pistol with a silencer. The second suspect was described as male, white, 6-feet-1, 160-170 pounds, wearing blue jeans, a turquoise shirt, and a brown stocking over his head.
Anyone with information is asked to call TUPD at (504) 865-5381 or NOPD at (504) 821-2222.
“Regardless of what the mayor and police chief say about the NOPD getting a handle on crime, it’s clear to everyone who lives here that it’s not safe to live in New Orleans right now,” one Gentilly resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Louisiana Weekly. “Every day after work, I rush home in the hope of getting inside before the sun goes down.
“But even then I know I’m not completely safe because criminals are bold and don’t have a problem with home invasions or committing crimes in broad daylight,” she added.
The fear and anxiety the resident expressed is not isolated and prompted the president of the New Orleans City Council to come up with a plan to address the NOPD’s ongoing struggles with slow response times.
City Council president Jason Williams is proposing what he describes as the biggest reallocation of funds to improve the 911 call center.
FOX 8 News reported that he is seeking to increase funding for the call center by $1 million. He says the money would be used to hire more call takers and supervisors in hopes of relieving stress on current employees. “I’ve heard stories of 911 calls just not being answered. We don’t have enough people to take calls. It’s going to cost to fix it,” Williams said at a news conference Wednesday.
Williams said the current staff is taking more calls than other parishes and making far less money.
Council members hope a consolidation proposal will make the call center more efficient, but until then they say they need more people working.
“This is a priority. It’s a problem and needs to be fixed now,” Councilwoman Susan Guidry, who heads the council’s Criminal Justice Committee, told FOX 8
Councilwoman Guidry also said the call center needs more manpower.
Williams wants to increase pay for call takers up to $34,000 a year.
It is unclear what parts of the budget would be cut to reallocate the $1 million for the call center.
This article originally published in the November 23, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
