Last week, New Orleans had its deadliest seven day stretch since the terror attack at the beginning of the year. According to the most recent crime statistics, homicide levels are back up to last year’s levels in New Orleans. This comes during the high-profile murder of a local chef that’s been making headlines in its own right. Is there a crime wave currently underway? Former NOPD chief Ronal Serpas points out that the number of crimes actually being reported when they previously may not have been often leads to a jump in crime statistics. That means the number of crimes themselves may not be up, but coverage on local news outlets becomes more frequent. Ultimately, that can cause a rift between the reality of how safe the area is versus the public perception of whether or not citizens feel safe.
“Any murder is horrific, especially juvenile murders, and going from 5-8 murders is a 50% increase,” Serpas emphasized. “But, people feel crime from what their friends, family, and neighbors tell them.
What happens is, when these events explode into the consciousness of the community, it tells them that maybe they’re not as safe as they actually are.
That’s a backwards position for police departments to be in because on one hand, the numbers of crimes the police know about is going down and that’s always good news. But, if crime is going down, but people are seeing more of these events, how can those two things coexist? Two things can be true at one time,” he went on to explain.
A recent New Orleans Crime Coalition poll suggests that only 50% of New Orleans feels safe or very safe. While that’s good news to many, that leaves roughly half the population still feeling unsafe or very unsafe. “What it tells me is that people are afraid and no matter how much you tell them crime is going down, they’re going to keep being afraid until the perception shifts,” Serpas added. The NOPD Chief notes that a very small portion of the population (roughly 1%) commits a majority of the crime both locally and nationally. With more of those habitual offenders behind bars, even though the amount of incarcerated may not jump significantly, the number of crimes will drop because those criminals are not on the streets to continue causing harm over and over again.
