The city of New Orleans has reached a grim milestone for the year. On Tuesday night, New Orleans police responded to the city's 200th homicide of 2022 when they were called to the scene of a deadly shooting.
That shooting is the latest case in the city's ongoing crime rash. Now, a former NOPD superintendent says the city's crime problem is fixable.
He also says the answer is one that's tried and true in New Orleans.
"It's despicable that our government continues to not be able to solve a problem that's been solved before," Ronal Serpas told WWL's Tommy Tucker.
Serpas says this latest crime wave is predictable and preventable. He says the the NOPD needs a good gumbo of officers who actively respond to crime and officers who are free to investigate crimes and find criminals.
"That's what brought the crime down in the '90s. That's what brought the crime down in the '10s," Serpas said. "You have to have social wraparound services for a lot of these young people who are looking for a way out of the violent culture, but for the violent culture you have to be able to have free police officers who are not distracted and are able to go do this stuff."
Serpas says the easiest way to do this is to reshuffle department resources and use them in the most efficient way possible.
"In any department in American, 100 calls go out every week for an officer," Serpas said. "Fifty of them usually don't need a police officer. They need someone else. Governments have been sending the police because it's the easiest thing to do. You gotta cut that off."
Serpas says Mayor LaToya Cantrell, the city council, and NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson will have to make tough decisions to make this happen.
"That's a simple process. It's a painful process. Councilmembers and mayors are going to have to tell the community the things they won't do any more so that they can prioritize the ultimate responsibility of keeping children from being killed and murdered on these streets."
Until then, Serpas says the city's crime problem will continue to tarnish the Crescent City's reputation.
"Whether you live in St. Louis, New York, or Chicago, people says, 'Oh. New Orleans. Oh, yeah, they have all those murders down there. I don't think I want to go there.'"
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