As of Tuesday morning, the city of New Orleans has not reported a homicide for December. In September, the Crescent City went 12 days without a murder.
“Knock on wood, we’re seeing an across-the-board reduction in violent crime in the City of New Orleans this year. The homicide rate in the city is down about 19 percent,” said New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche.
However, Goyeneche is quick to point out that homicides for 2022 were among the highest for the last three decades and this year’s murder rate is still higher than those from 2019 to 2021.
Accordinf to the Crime Commission's statistics, shootings are down 22 percent, carjackings down 46 percent and armed robbery has declined 34 percent from this time last year.
Even with a sizable loss of law enforcement officers, down approximately 25 percent since 2018, Goyeneche credits the NOPD’s return to proactive policing for the reduction in violent crime.
“And the areas that they do that in are weapons felony enforcement and drug felony enforcement. Both of those two areas were ignored over the last several years,” said Goyeneche.
He said the pandemic limited proactive policing.
Goyeneche said prioritizing arrests of those carrying weapons illegally and/or drugs is reflected in the reduction of violent crime because they are not out on the streets.
“This year we’ve seen the police department increase felony arrests by 17 percent for weapons offenses and 13 percent for drug offenses,” said Goyeneche.
In 2018, NOPD had approximately 1,200 officers. In 2023, the number had dwindled to 900.
Goyeneche is also hopeful the partnership with Republican Governor-elect Jeff Landry and Democrat Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams will continue the crime reduction.
