New Orleans City Councilmember Joe Giarrusso joined Newell Wednesday morning to discuss City Hall’s approach to fighting the youth crime wave, how to deal with big Mardi Gras crowds, and what’s next in the fight against COVID-19.
“I know recently you guys have been meeting, quite a bit about the crime picture here,” Newell began. “Where are we on that? What are the next steps that the council is contemplating?”
“We had our meeting last Monday to discuss what the crime picture looked like,” Giarrusso said. “We had the DA, the Chief of Police, the Chief Judges of Criminal and Juvenile court... there was one area where I would say there was a lot of uniformity - right now, there is either detention or release, maybe with some bond conditions, but in Orleans Parish, we don't really have electronic monitoring, which Jefferson Parish uses, as you know, in a far more robust way. Pretty much all of the parties on the call agree that that needs to be something that is explored, optimized and used as well as possible. So, when you can get sort of six or seven different parts of the criminal justice system saying the same thing, that's a good thing!”
“Now we'll go back to each of the departments about what they're doing and, and what's going on and what efforts are being made, and where we can sort of start controlling those numbers,” Giarrusso continued. “I looked yesterday in preparation for the call - according to our dashboard, most crime was down in District A except for car burglaries and carjackings, which of course leaves me very concerned. So what are we doing to focus on those crimes? How are we utilizing our resources? You and I talk a whole lot about budgeting, and budgeting for outcomes. We have our budget committee meeting tomorrow and I'm curious to see how the city is doing both last year and the beginning of this year to start, and then what resources are needed. One of the things the Chief said in response to one of my questions is they're not using overtime very much. And I certainly understand that because there's no Mardi Gras, there's no Jazz Fest, there's no French Quarter Fest, but if we need to make sure that their supplementation for people being on the streets and we lifted the furloughs for public safety people, then we need to be looking at that as well.”
“You and I have talked about a reprioritization,” Newell said. “I said this the other day on the show, and not to make light of the subject, but it's almost as if one might say - give me the potholes, just make sure I'm safe and secure as I drive down the streets of the city!”
“Yeah, the city's first job is public safety,” Giarrusso agreed. “And that means keeping people safe on the streets, and in the streets. Certainly with people being home, quality of life issues have become more acute. People are calling more about water leaks, potholes lights being out, noise, you name it. But obviously when you see crime trends going in a direction, then you want to ask questions about how we best solve for that. And if some of that is utilizing more resources, then we need to do that. The other piece of it too, as you saw in St. Tammany, the criminal court there is going to roll out mental health court. What are we also doing on that side of the equation too? Because money is being spent in other parishes on those services. How are we using all of our resources to help tackle this problem?”
Hear the entire interview in the audio player below.
