Better police protection at the top of city’s 2016 wish
4th January 2016 · 0 Comments
With a persistent plague of violence and bloodshed and a rise in armed robberies, the city hopes a for a bigger and better-trained police force to battle crime in 2016.
FOX 8 News reported last week that the rise in violent crime, the NOPD’s manpower shortage and the department’s slow response times to calls for assistance has led New Orleans residents to place little trust in the city’s ability to fight crime and keep residents safe.
“No one’s going to catch me for anything if I were to happen to be breaking the law, so no. Yeah, I think we could stand to do a little bit more policing,” Broadmoor resident Scott Beckett told FOX 8.
Beckett said he knows firsthand the seriousness of the crime problem.
“Very serious incident on my street recently. You know, it was in the middle of the night, three in the morning,” Beckett said.
While there was a lull in the city’s murder rate in October, 2015’s murder total had already exceeded last year’s murder total with a few days remaining in 2015.
Listed below is the murder count in recent years:
Year 2015 — 164 as of press time on December 30.
Year 2014 – 151
Year 2013 – 155
Year 2012 – 188
Year 2011 – 197
Year 2010 – 173
As manpower remains a major issue for the understaffed NOPD, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu proposed — and the City Council approved — a 2016 city budget that seeks to ease the shortfall by providing 15 percent pay increases for NOPD officers and money to hire 150 additional officers to bring the force to 1,266.
“It’s a much more rapid process of getting someone to apply, tested, investigated and ready to start the academy,” Melanie Talia, chief executive officer of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, told FOX 8 News.
She pointed to the fruits of aggressive recruitment efforts over the past year as an encouraging sign.
“Last year, NOPD saw about 2,200 applications for employment, and this year we are approaching 4,500, so the interest is definitely there,” Talia said.
The NOPD maintains that it is on track to train four recruit classes this year. In January 2015, Recruits Class #172 began with 30 recruits, and that class graduated in September. In June, Class #173 with 33 recruits began training, and that class is set to graduate. Class #174 with 32 recruits began in October and continues its training.
“Class number 175 starts two o’clock Wednesday afternoon, so there is a lot happening,” Talia said.
And the Police Foundation believes that the increase in pay for New Orleans police officers will help the NOPD better compete with departments in other states.
“It puts us ahead of Atlanta and it makes us competitive with Dallas,” Talia said.
Beckett said he would welcome more police on the streets to crackdown on offenses that he believes go unchecked.
“General road safety, safety for bicyclists,” he said.
According to NOPD crime statistics, nearly 25 percent of the people murdered in 2015 were killed in the NOPD’s &th District, which includes the Lower Ninth Ward and eastern New Orleans. Police reported that at least 42 of the city’s murder victims were killed in the 7th District, most of them in New Orleans East.
Two more people lost their lives in eastern New Orleans Monday night after a double shooting.
Police are searching for clues in the murder of two 24-year-old men who were shot and killed in the parking lot of an apartment complex.
WWL reported that the shooting happened after 7 p.m. in the 7000 block of Martin Drive. The victims were gunned down inside of the Hidden Lake Apartments.
According to police, officers were called out to investigate a call of two men shot near a stairwell inside the apartment complex. When officers arrived, the victims were found lying next to motorcycles and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Both victims died on the scene. They have not been identified.
Police have not identified a motive or possible suspects.
Anyone with information that might help investigators is asked to call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.
Not even the holidays could slow down the city’s rising murder rate.
Police said there were several shootings on Christmas day, including one that turned fatal.
According to police, the fatal shooting of a 26-year-old man occurred in the 300 block of North Broad Street.
Around 9:50 p.m., police responded to the call of a male shot. When officers arrived at the scene, the victim was found inside a car and had been shot multiple times to the body. EMS arrived at the scene shortly after and pronounced the victim dead.
Homicide Detective Maggie McCourt is investigating this incident and can be contacted at (504) 658-5300.
Around 9 p.m., a man was shot a few blocks away in the 4000 block of Tulane Avenue. The victim was taken to the hospital, but his condition was unknown, according to the NOPD. Police have not said whether the shootings are related.
Around 10:45 p.m., police confirmed that a male victim was shot in the 9200 block of Airline Drive. An unknown man shot a 37-year-old man and then shot into a moving vehicle hitting a 60-year-old man. The first victim was transported to a local hospital, and the second victim was taken to the hospital by private conveyance.
Much earlier, around 3:00 p.m., a 31-year-old woman showed up at a hospital in New Orleans with a gunshot wound to the back of her leg, according to police. Detectives are trying to determine a location and motive.
Anyone with information that can help solve these crimes is asked to call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.
This article originally published in the January 4, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
