Louisiana's violent crime remains high, as New Orleans' rates fall
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Louisiana and other Southern states had some of the nation's highest violent crime and homicide rates in 2024, driven by violence in small communities, according to an Axios analysis of FBI data.
Why it matters: A state-by-state comparison paints a complex picture of U.S. crime trends as President Trump threatens to send the National Guard to Democrat-controlled cities over concerns about violent crime.
The big picture: The president has already dispatched the National Guard to Washington, D.C., and is threatening to send troops to Chicago, Baltimore, and Oakland, California.
- Now, Trump is facing questions about whether he'll send troops to communities in red states — many of them largely rural — where crime rates are actually higher than the areas he's targeted.
Catch up quick: Trump last week floated the idea of sending the National Guard to "straighten out" New Orleans, saying he thinks it would take only two weeks.
- Gov. Jeff Landry welcomed the offer, and NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said she'd work with federal troops if they were deployed.
- While the statements from the mayor's office have been relatively neutral, City Council members have decried the proposal.
- There haven't been any updates about the administration's intentions since last week.
By the numbers: Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas and South Carolina were among the national leaders in both violent crime and homicide rates last year, an Axios review of FBI data found.
- Alaska, the country's most rural state, had the nation's highest violent crime rate at 1,194.3 per 100,000 residents. That was more than three times the national average of 359.1.
- Louisiana's violent crime rate last year was 487.5 per 100,000 residents, the FBI data shows.
Yes, but: Crime continues to trend down in New Orleans, according to city data.
- Reported crimes are down 21% from last year and 43% from two years ago.
- While New Orleans had the highest homicide rate in the country three years ago, the numbers have improved, according to the city's dashboard.
- Murders are down 21% from last year and 64% from three years ago.
What they're saying: The data shows "what is possible when you actually work strategies and when you are focused or precision-based," Superintendent Kirkpatrick said in May.
- She also credited a fairly new federal law enforcement partnership with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Homeland Security Investigations, writes Axios' Chelsea Brasted.
Shreveport's high homicide rate
Zoom out: Alaska and New Mexico had the nation's highest homicide rate with 11.3 homicides per 100,000 residents each, more than twice the national rate of 5 per 100,000 residents.
- Pennsylvania was third nationally with a homicide rate of 10.1, followed by Louisiana with 9 per 100,000 residents.
- Shreveport had the highest homicide rate in the state, with 26.8 homicides per 100,000 residents, according to FBI data. However, Baton Rouge appears to have a higher rate, based on local police figures and media reports.
- Illinois, home to Chicago, which Trump has called a "killing field," had a homicide rate of six per 100,000 residents, ranking 20th in the nation.
Between the lines: 13 of the 20 cities with the highest murder rates were in Republican-run states. Many of those cities were run by Democrats who often are at odds with state officials, the Axios analysis found.
- Many cities, including those with the highest murder rates, saw declines in homicides. Crime remains a significant concern, but Trump's criticism of big, Democrat-led cities in blue states tells only part of the story.
Zoom in: Big-city crime often receives the most attention in political discourse, but an Axios analysis of rural states found that violence in small towns is driving some of the nation's highest crime rates.
- Rural crime often gets overlooked because most media outlets are centered in urban areas and focus on crime there, Ralph Weisheit, a criminal justice professor at Illinois State University, tells Axios.
What they're saying: "If Washington, D.C., [were] a state, it would have the highest homicide rate of any state in the nation," the White House said in a statement on Aug. 11 before dispatching the National Guard.
- D.C.'s homicide rate was 25.9 per 100,000 residents in 2024.
Yes, but: D.C. isn't a state, it's a city. Among the cities with the highest homicide rates, it is ranked 11th, according to an Axios review of cities with 100,000 people or more with high homicide rates.
- Jackson, Mississippi, with a population of about 141,500, had the nation's highest homicide rate last year — nearly 78 homicides per 100,000 residents. That's more than 15 times the national average. There has been no national discussion about sending troops there to combat crime.