Four days after the NOPD began putting more officers on the street, the head of the local police union says city leaders need to do more to fight crime.
Police Association of New Orleans president Michael Glasser says despite the deployment, the NOPD hasn't seen any real change in terms of the number of officers assigned to each district.
"What's changing a little bit is the people that are already in the district and how many are dedicated to uniformed patrol versus other services that they were previously using," Glasser told WWL's Tommy Tucker.
Glasser says the NOPD needs to recruit more officers who can answer calls in the city. This, he says, would allow the NOPD to be more proactive and help reduce the number of calls made to them.
"We really haven't done (proactive policing) in the last two-and-a-half years, which is why crime is spiking," Glasser said.
Glasser also noted that, for now, more officers are needed to respond to the amount of calls the NOPD receives.
"Remember, the police are the only 24-hour, seven-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year government entity that will respond to your call for help, even though it may be late sometimes, but we will show up," Glasser said. "People call for help and expect the police to show up and show up in a reasonable time. The only way for us to improve that is to put more people answering those calls, and hopefully on the other end, the proactive people will reduce the number of calls and the need for the police.
Glasser admits the redeployment is a good start to the changes the NOPD hopes to bring.
"The redeployment is just the beginning," Glasser said. "It's helpful, but it's not a panacea. It's not going to solve the problem in the overall."