Murders down, but rape, robbery and theft on the rise in N.O.

23rd June 2014   ·   0 Comments

You’re more likely to be raped, robbed or become a theft victim than to become a murder victim in New Orleans, according to crime statistics released last week by the New Orleans Police Department.

According to a news release from the NOPD, New Orleans experienced a 27.91 percent drop in murders during the first quarter of 2014 compared to last year’s data.

During the first three months of 2014, there were 31 murders, 51 rapes, 253 armed robberies, 117 simple robberies and 467 assaults, compared with 43 murders, 31 rapes, 152 armed robberies, 81 simple robberies and 358 assaults during the same period in 2013.

Murder is down in the first quarter of 2014 by 27.9 percent, rape is up 64.5 percent, armed robbery is up 66 percent, simple burglary is up 44 percent and assault is up 31 percent.

The NOPD, which is undergoing the implementation of sweeping, federally mandated reforms, said in a news release last week that the “statistics represent a continued downward trend in murder and show that the number of murders in New Orleans is at a historic nearly 30-year low.”

“Reducing the number of murders on the streets of our city is a top priority, and we are continuing to make significant progress,” NOPD Super­in­ten­dent Ronal Ser­pas told WWL-TV.

To his credit, Serpas did not shy away from discussing the city’s growing rape problem.

“Sexual assaults are among the most heinous crimes and our Sex Crimes Unit has made it a priority to make sure anyone who commits this crime is brought to justice.,” Serpas said. “These statistics continue to show that more victims are coming forward than ever before and that people believe our department can and will get these offenders off the streets.”

Despite the police chief’s determination to rescue the number of rapes committed in New Orleans, a recent report accused the NOPD of misclassifying rapes

In March, during a hearing on crime in City Council Chambers, one residents told the council how he acted to prevent a rape that was in progress, only for the police to never show up after he and the intended victim waited for hours.

Several recent reports, one by the Office of Inspector General and the other by the Metropolitan Crime Commission criticized the NOPD’s leadership for being top-heavy and mismanaging its available personnel. The OIG report called reports of a NOPD manpower shortage inaccurate and said the department needs to free up cops working in office settings to patrol the streets of New Orleans. The MCC report said there is in fact a manpower shortage but that the force could still better utilize its officers.

A third report, filed recently by NOPD consent-decree federal monitor Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, said that the NOPD has “a long way to go” before it is compliant with federal guidelines.

“You don’t have to tell anyone who has been on the streets talking o the people that the NOPD still has a long way to go,” the Rev. Raymond Brown, a community activist and president of National Action Now, told The Louisiana Weekly. “People’s rights are still being violated and the officers are still using excessive force — right under the nose of the U.S. Department of Justice.”

A recent edition of local cable-access show “OurStory,” video footage was shown of police doing traffic stops in a Black neighborhood.

“Where are the similar stops being done in white neighborhoods?” “OurStory” host W.C. Johnson, a member of Community United for Change, said. “CUC will continue to work with the community to monitor the NOPD’s interaction with residents and watch closely as the federal monitor oversees implementation of the NOPD consent decree..”

For three years, CUC hosted community meetings and forums which brought together DOJ officials and members of the community whose loved ones were victimized by members of the NOPD. Those meetings ultimately led to federal charges filed against NOPD officers involved in the Danziger Bridge shootings and the murder of Henry Glover. Since then, CUC has worked to prepare its members and residents for work on a Civilian Oversight Committee designed to “police the police” and ensure that the police no longer get away with unconstitutional policing.

In other NOPD news, the City of New Orleans and NOPD officials hosted a recruitment event aimed at boosting the department’s dwindling ranks on Saturday, June 7, at Langston Highest Academy.

The NOPD currently has less than 1,200 officers, a 36-year low according to the Metropolitan Crime Commission, and is budgeted to add 150 new police officers to the department this year.

The first class of NOPD recruits began their nine-month training several weeks ago, with three of the 32 recruits quitting during the first week.

FOX 8 News reported that Mayor Landrieu and NOPD Super­intendent Ronal Serpas used the June 7 event to reach out to residents contemplating a career in law enforcement.

“We are asking you to consider joining the New Orleans Police Department which in my view is going to be one of the best police departments in the country in the not-so-distant future,” Landrieu said during a session with some of those in attendance.

During the spring, the New Orleans City Council voted 6-1 to relax the city’s residency rule to allow for the recruitment of police, firemen and EMS workers who live outside of Orleans Parish. Council­members said that they supported the measure because the city and its residents are in dire need of better police protection, particularly after reports of slow responses to 911 calls and not enough patrol officers on the streets.

The only dissenting vote came from Councilman James Gray, who said he opposed the changes because he was concerned about how they would affect the property tax base.

FOX 8 News reported that Tevin Blakes, 20, filled out an application and hopes to enter the police academy so that he can begin to make a difference. He told the news station that he has personal reasons for wanting to end the violence.

“Making it better, and safer for everybody, you know because I have family members that have been in terrible crimes, you know, and it’s taking a toll on my life,” Blakes said.

Despite NOPD consent-decree monitor Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton’s first quarterly report — coving August 2013 through October 2013 —that said the NOPD still has “a long way to go,” Serpas said the federally mandated reforms are making the department better and pay is competitive.

“By the time they get out of the academy and have at least one year of service they are in the low 40s and they can go up to almost the mid to high forties depending upon their education,” Serpas told FOX 8.

Cops and the Justice Foundation is assisting the NOPD in getting the “Help Wanted” message out to the public.

“I think there’s a good crop of candidates here in the city, but we’re also seeing people from all over the country who want to move to New Orleans,” Sandy Shilstone, Chair of the Board of the Police and Justice Foundation, told FOX 8

The NOPD is also recruiting among the ranks of veteran law enforcement officers from other police departments

“If you’re already a police officer, or you are in the military you get fast-tracked and it’s a way to get employed in New Orleans right away,” Shilstone explained..

The current NOPD budget will fund 1,260 cops, according to Serpas.

“Today we’re at about 1,150, there are 29 people in the current academy class, there’s 64 people in background investigations right now for the next class, and there’s well over 1,500 people that have applied with an actual application to the NOPD that we’re working through,” continued Serpas.

Blakes told FOX 8 that he hopes he will get to wear the NOPD blue.

“In order for us as a community to step and improve our community we have to take charge and that’s what I feel like I am doing today,” Blakes said.

Despite progress being made in the NOPD’s efforts to rework its off-duty, paid-detail system — once called by the Feds an “aorta of corruption” — Sheppard Mullin said in its second quarterly report released June 12 that the NOPD has missed several federally mandated deadlines and still has a lot of work to do to be compliant with federal standards of constitutional policing.

The news delivered in that 126-page report comes as PANO and FOP continue to resist federal efforts to overhaul the detail system. The two police associations have filed a lawsuit challenging the overhaul of the detail system.

The second quarterly report, which covers the period from Nov. 2013 through March 31, 2014, says the NOPD was “unable to demonstrate compliance” with a number of the 492 points listed in the consent decree including use of force and custodial interrogations.

Among the shortcomings and failures listed in the report were the failure to teach officers about the consent decree and the role they play in helping the NOPD to become compliant; the NOPD’s failure to establish policies, procedures and a system for determining whether tasers, vehicle locators and in-car camera equipment are functioning properly; failure to designate someone to monitor whether the department is complying with language-assistance standards for policing; and the department’s failure to reassess the deployment and allocation of officers.

“As noted at the outset of this Second Quarterly Report, based on our work and observations thus far, we believe the NOPD remains committed to the promises it made to the citizens of New Orleans (and its officers) in the Consent Decree,” Sheppard Mullin wrote. “NOPD leadership with whom we interact on a daily basis express genuine interest in making NOPD a better police department and in effectuating the improvements guaranteed by the Consent Decree. Our daily interactions with the rank and file further confirm our view that within NOPD are a large number of ethical, caring and professional officers who also are dedicated to improving the Depart­ment.

“Our work, however, also has revealed that, in many important ways, the NOPD is not yet consistently delivering the quality of services the people of New Orleans are entitled to and are demanding,” the monitor added. “…[I]t is clear there nevertheless is widespread dissatisfaction with the overall performance of the NOPD.

“Meeting their obligations under the Consent Decree requires that the City and NOPD have (a) incorporated the Consent Decree requirements into meaningful and understandable policies, (b) effectively trained all relevant personnel as necessary to fulfill their responsibilities.”

“We’re committed to working with the monitor and the Department of Justice to improve the policy review process and to make records more easily accessible,” Serpas said in a statement last week.

“As we work to make the NOPD the best police department in the country, we’ve made a lot of progress, and we still have a long way to go,” a spokesman for the Mayor’s Office told The New Orleans Advocate last week.

Not everyone is convinced that recruiting officers outside of Orleans Parish is a good idea. :You never know who you’re bringing in,” Ramessu Merriamen Aha, a New Orleans businessman and former congressional candidate, told The Louisiana Weekly Wednesday. “Clearly, some of the cops in­volved in the high-profile Dan­ziger Bridge and Henry Glover cases lived outside of Orleans Parish. That partially explains the callous abuse of New Orleans residents. We actually paid them to shoot some of us down like animals. Then they had the audacity to say that they couldn’t get a fair trial in New Orleans.

“Add to that the idea of there being fewer cops living in New Orleans neighborhoods that can assist with emergencies and accidents, and it just doesn’t seem like a good idea. The physical presence of cops living and working in New Orleans makes the entire community safer because criminals don’t know how close they are to being taken into custody by an off-duty cop.”

Additional reporting by Louisiana Weekly editor Edmund W. Lewis.

This article originally published in the June 23, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.