As New Orleans police and city officials continue to seek ways to battle the city's crime problem, a member of the NOLA Coalition has suggestions for how others can help solve that problem.
Anne Kiefer represents several organizations, including the Lakeshore Property Owners Association, in the NOLA Coalition. Kiefer told WWL's Newell Normand that the local business community is stepping up its efforts to help the NOPD battle crime. She says residents also need to do their part to help the NOPD.
"We know that we have to be vitally involved in crime solving," Keifer said.
According to Kiefer, residents must play an active role in keeping the city as safe as possible, even if crime is happening away from their own neighborhoods.
"We have to be interested in what happens in New Orleans East and the French Quarter and Back-of-Town and Central City," Kiefer said. "This is our city, and as property owners, we have to be first and foremost interested in what happens to our entire city and not just us."
Kiefer is also calling on local and state leaders to make major changes to the juvenile justice system. Kiefer, a veteran of the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office, the juvenile justice system as it is set up now allows offenders to become more violent.
"We don't have balance now because the juvenile justice system was never set up to be punative," Kiefer said. "It was never set up to punish kids.
"This is not delinquent kids. These are not kids skipping school. These are not kids breaking curfew or spitting on the sidewalk or chewing gum and getting a detention. These are kids committing heinous crimes."
Now, Kiefer is calling on the public to hold the judges and the entire juvenile system accountable.
"The whole system, which is shrouded in secrecy, is not acceptable any more," Kiefer said.
One area where Kiefer says she has seen a change is in the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office. Kiefer says she has seen a turnaround in how District Attorney Jason Williams is handling criminal cases. According to Kiefer, the turnaround came after crime victims told Williams they weren't happy with the treatment they received from his office when their cases went to court.
Kiefer says she and others in the NOLA Coalition have offered their assistance to Williams and his office to help fight crime.
"Anybody who is part of New Orleans or has the expertise and the ability to help and to reach out, we are reaching out to the D. A. and saying: 'We're here to help. We've been where you are. We know the job, and we want to help,'" Kiefer said. "That's our message to Jason Williams. We're here to help--not to be part of the problem but to be part of the solution--and we mean that with a whole heart."
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