New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno says she wants to cool tempers between the city and the state government in light of the recent Orleans Parish grand jury indictment of Attorney General Liz Murrill.
Will the tension between the city and the state harm joint efforts to drive down crime in New Orleans?
"My suspicion would be that it does not," former New Orleans police superintendent Ronal Serpas said.
Serpas told WWL's Tommy Tucker that despite the indictment, which has since been invalidated by the Louisiana Supreme Court, he expects Murrill, Governor Jeff Landry, and Mayor Helena Moreno will continue to work together, especially as it relates to keeping Troop NOLA in the city.
"The state's commitment to Troop (NOLA), the governor's commitment to Troop (NOLA) . . . I haven't heard anybody in the city say they don't want them, which would truly be stunning," Serpas said. "We haven't heard anything from the state that Troop NOLA would not continue. I haven't heard anything from the governor, for example, and we haven't heard anything from Mayor Moreno saying, gee, I don't want Troop NOLA any more. I don't think it's going to be an issue there."
Serpas said the bigger problem is that the indictment gives the appearance that city officials don't want to work with state leaders to reduce crime.
"Everything in politics is optics. What does it look like?" Serpas said. "I think most citizens just scratch their head and say: Wait a minute. Is this how this is going to go?"
