New Orleans violent crime spike not necessarily a mark of increased gun violence
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New Orleans police are battling what assistant chief Hans Ganthier calls "an unacceptable increase in shootings and murders" — despite an overall year-over-year improvement in the city's violent crime statistics.
Why it matters: While troublesome, it's not necessarily a sign that violent crime is rising overall, crime analyst Jeff Asher told WWL Radio.
The big picture: For months, New Orleans leaders have celebrated a significant improvement in the city's violent crime statistics, though always tempered with an admission that any is too much.
- But an early fall spike, which included nine people killed in a seven-day stretch across nine different neighborhoods, according to The Times-Picayune, and a French Quarter carjacking that turned deadly when the car rolled over Thursday, seem to make a strong argument that's there's still a lot of work to be done.
Yes, but: Data is only part of the picture.
- "For the most part, shootings remain low, and it suggests, at least to me, that we're not seeing necessarily a surge in gun violence," Asher told WWL. "We're just seeing a change in randomness, essentially, over the last couple of weeks."
Between the lines: The crime spike also came as Gov. Jeff Landry publicized a plan to bring in the Louisiana National Guard to bolster law enforcement ranks across the state.
- That plan has yet to be approved by the Trump administration.
What they're saying: Recent headlines also help explain that keeping reducing crime includes community participation, says NOPD spokesperson Reese Harper.
- Last week's arrest of escaped inmate Derrick Groves, which investigators attribute to a Crimestoppers tip, is an example of that.
- "When we have an incident that happens in the city and it results in a tragic situation such as [the carjacking], that's when we really need the public to speak up, to say something … so that we can do something," Harper says.