With just two months left in the year, the number of murders in New Orleans has surpassed the total of 2021 of 221.
This comes at a time when October’s murder rate is down markedly from the previous months, which averaged 23 murders.
Many of those killings were in areas of the city known for high amounts of criminal activity, including Little Woods, Central City, the 7th Ward, and West Lake Forest.
"We’re looking at 270-275 murders by the time the end of the year comes," Mike Glasser, President of the Police Association of New Orleans told the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate. "That's enormous."
Even with 275 murders potentially, it’s still far below the counts of 1993-94 when New Orleans logged 395 and 424 murders.
New Orleans has seen a steady increase in killings since hitting a low mark of just 121 slayings in 2019.
"We have seen those numbers go up from 2019 to 2022, and we are at a high water mark," said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
"Every year for the last three years has been a high water mark," Goyeneche told the paper.
An early sign of improvement is the October count. Redeployment of officers and expanded recruiting efforts have seen this drop in killings in just one month.
"That response, that visibility, it's all playing a role in discouraging individuals from committing criminal activity," Ferguson said during his October 11th press briefing.
Still, were we stand right now is higher than last year, which was higher than the year before that, and the year before that…
