Crime is down six percent across the city due to the action the NOPD has taken to combat crime in the city, New Orleans Police Chief Shaun Ferguson said at his press conference on Thursday.
Ferguson says auto burglaries are down with 57 last week. That is down from 82 auto burglaries from the prior week.
“So this leads me to believe what we have in place right now, is working,” Chief Ferguson said.
While violent crime is up 29%, homicides decreased slightly with 16 murders in the month of June, which is down from 18 murders in June of last year.
Ferguson says the NOPD continues to recruit new officers, but adds since the killing of George Floyd, the department has seen a sharp decrease in the number of police recruit applications, contributing further to the manpower shortage.
“We have received approximately 400 to 500 applicants a month, since then, we have seen this year alone, we average 245 a month, so far, 1470 applications this year, so that is cut by half.”
