Public satisfaction grows for NOPD, but drops for Cantrell
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The New Orleans Police Department continues to improve its public satisfaction rating, while Mayor LaToya Cantrell's keeps dropping, according to a new community poll.
The big picture: NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick has the highest approval rating for an elected officials in the city, according to the survey from the New Orleans Crime Coalition.
- The police department's satisfaction rate (31%) was the lowest it had been in more than a decade when Kirkpatrick started in 2023, according to the group's surveys.
- It's now up to 47%, with a majority of surveyed residents (54%) saying they feel the city is safe.
Zoom in: 65% of respondents said they think the city is on the wrong track.
- Approval ratings for Cantrell (27%, down from 31%) and Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson (18%, down from 32%) dropped this year.
- City Council's stayed pretty much the same (47% this year and 48% last year).
- The poll was taken after 10 inmates escaped from the Orleans Justice Center, which Hutson manages.
- This is how public officials and agencies fared in the job approval survey:
Winners
- Kirkpatrick (53% approval)
- DA Jason Williams (51%)
- NOPD (47%)
- City Council (47%)
Losers
- Sewerage & Water Board (79% disapproval)
- Cantrell (62%)
- Hutson (62%)
Meanwhile, New Orleans voters will elect a new mayor and sheriff this fall.
- This poll has Michelle Woodfork in the lead for the sheriff's job and Helena Moreno leading in the mayor's race.
- See our running list of mayoral candidates.
Zoom in: This is the 16th annual NOPD Citizen Satisfaction Survey from the New Orleans Crime Coalition.
- The group says it started it in 2009 to highlight areas needing improvement and to encourage reforms within the department.
- The Greater New Orleans Foundation, GNO Inc. and the Business Council of New Orleans and the River Region paid for this year's survey.
How it works: Faucheux Strategies conducted the phone survey from May 27 to June 4 to track key metrics related to residents' perceptions.
- The poll surveyed a representative sample of 800 New Orleans adults and has a margin of error of 3.46%.