The New Orleans City Council finally unveiled its crime plan for the city after hearing from criminal justice leaders - many residents blame Mayor LaToya Cantrell, the New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson and District Attorney Jason Williams for the city’s two year spike in violent crime. Councilman at Large JP Morrell came on the show with sharp criticisms of Ferguson, and he believes a lot of the city’s crime problem is due to the overall operation of the NOPD. Morrell added that the Council will have a tight grip on the dollars that fund city offices.
You've said a critical issue is whether or not this Chief Sean Ferguson should stay in this position.. please elaborate.
The pivotal moment in the crime increase in New Orleans versus that of all of our surrounding parishes was the disbanding of the TIGER Unit in September of 2020. We have the data that shows this, so this is not just my opinion. Armed robberies and carjackings went up 100% and 150%, respectively. Ferguson replaced the TIGER Unit with the V.C.A.T. Unit, which was a dismal failure. We have an exodus from the police department. We lost 120 to 150 officers last year and have lost 20 this year. There’s a lack of leadership, innovation, and urgency in addressing the crime problem. We're at a point now where we have to really reevaluate, not just the state of crime in the city, but the state of the NOPD. Police morale is at an all-time low. Cops are not leaving because of pay, but because the NOPD is a miserable place to work.
You can defund or demoralize a police department in a lot of different ways. I don't know if that falls on the shoulders of just one individual. I just don’t know who the actual leader of that would be.
It's not just about the position of this chief. It's a combination of City Council action and public outcry that says we have to go a new direction. If this Chief were to leave, it should not be as simple as the Mayor picking a new one. As long as the Mayor thinks the chief's doing a great job, it tremendously limits the ability of anyone to be able to affect who the chief is. On Thursday, the Council filed a charter amendment that would require future police chiefs to be confirmed by the Council in a public process… one of the Council’s primary jobs is to control the purse strings. We know the justice system needs more resources, but I'm tired of Councils giving money to departments with no accountability. A big part of the Council’s plan is to give city offices all the resources they need - as long as you provide the council all the information it needs.
Does the council have the necessary dollars in order to deliver what y'all put in your crime plan?
Part of finding the necessary dollars and not raising taxes is to go through the monies that are given to everyone, and find out where it's being spent. For example, The Office of Children and Families has a million and a half dollar operating budget and only five employees. Their primary job is oversight of the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center, where four kids walked out and stole a car!
