In the first half of this year, New Orleans surpassed St. Louis as the murder capital of the United States, as the city suffers with its lowest police personnel level in modern history and a crisis in officer morale.
According to an analysis by the Wall Street Journal of data from the Major Cities Chiefs Association, New Orleans had the highest homicide rate among US cities in the first half of 2022, with 41 murders per 100,000 residents.
In comparison, the first-half murder rates per 100,000 in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City were 11,5, 4,8, and 2,4, respectively.
According to the city’s Metropolitan Crime Commission, the homicide rate in New Orleans is up 141 percent compared to 2019, while shootings are up 100 percent, carjackings are up 210 percent, and armed robberies are up 25 percent.
In March, LaToya Cantrell, mayor of New Orleans, enters on horseback for the Krewe of Zulu roll. According to a new report, the city now has the highest murder rate in the United States.
Compared to 2019, the homicide rate in New Orleans has increased by 141 percent, while shootings are up 100 percent, carjackings are up 210 percent, and armed robberies are up 25 percent.
In March, members of the New Orleans Police Department investigate a carjacking on N. Pierce Street that resulted in the death of an elderly woman.
According to a separate study from Rochester Institute of Technology, St. Louis was the murder capital of the United States in 2012, with a murder rate of 61 per 100,000.
If the current trend continues, New Orleans will have an annual murder rate of 82 in 2022, compared to the second-place rate of 56 in 2017.
Due to the fact that the FBI has not produced its national Unified Crime Report since the 2019 reporting year, comparing the murder rates in various cities has at times proved challenging.
However, according to the available data, violent crime rates have increased in a number of communities across the nation, a trend that reflects the psychological and financial strain of the pandemic as well as police reductions in reaction to Black Lives Matter protests.
In New Orleans, the police budget climbed dramatically in 2022, from $178 million in 2021 to $215 million in 2022.
It’s approximately $570 per inhabitant, which is close to New York’s $653 per resident expenditure for its large police department, which is the city with the highest per capita police spending.
In May, investigators explore the scene of a gunshot at New Orleans’ Xavier University.
According to Mayor LaToya Cantrell, a decade-old agreement with the Justice Department has made it difficult to recruit new police officers by placing them under federal surveillance.
Officials in New Orleans revealed last week a three-year, $80 million plan to bolster the city’s tiny police force, which includes raises for all officers, free health care, and $30,000 in incentive payments for new employees.
Some New Orleans residents have accused Mayor LaToya Cantrell, a Democrat who was re-elected last year, of not being tough enough on crime in light of the city’s rising crime statistics.
Cantrell argues that a ten-year-old agreement with the Justice Department has made it harder to recruit new police officers by subjecting their conduct to a microscope.
The New Orleans police force has less than 1,000 officers for the first time in modern history, down from more than 1,300 a few years ago.
In July, City Council President Helena Moreno stated that the city loses approximately 100 officers every year due to retirement and resignation, or roughly 10 percent of the total force of 989.
According to WWL-TV, Moreno stated during a city council meeting that a department designed for around 1,400 officers cannot operate with fewer than 1,000 personnel.
Last month, New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson spoke with media in front of the federal courtroom in New Orleans, after the city petitioned to cancel a decade-old consent decree allowing federal authority of its police department.
Since former Mayor Mitch Landrieu implemented a two-year hiring freeze a decade ago, the staffing shortage has persisted.
After tragic police killings of citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina heightened criticism of the scandal-plagued agency, Landrieu, who assumed office in 2010, asked the Justice Force to investigate the city’s police department.
In January 2013, a federal judge granted a DOJ cooperation decree, placing the city’s police under federal supervision.
After nearly a decade, the agreement remains in existence, and Cantrell has stated that the bureaucratic obligations it imposes have contributed to morale and personnel decreases.
During a status hearing last month, a federal judge appeared doubtful of the city’s plea to cancel the pact.
Other elements are more detrimental to the morale of rank-and-file officers, according to Capt. Michael Glasser, head of the Police Association of New Orleans.
He referenced an overzealous “public integrity bureau” – the police internal affairs body that the police union has occasionally accused of utilizing fraudulent information against officers.