New Orleans sheds "murder capital" title as violent crime trends down
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New Orleans' violent crime continued to trend down for the third year in a row, according to newly released statistics from the city police department.
Why it matters: New Orleans carried the title of "murder capital of the U.S." just three years ago, says New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick.
- "The numbers tell a story, but they represent real lives," Kirkpatrick said Monday. Still, "since 2022, we've had an amazing story to tell."
The big picture: Though the improvements come amid an ongoing drop in national crime, Kirkpatrick credits the city's own trend with "precision policing," experimentation with new crime-fighting technologies and community participation.
- "We are targeted about who does these crimes in our community," Kirkpatrick said. "We do not fish with a net, where we just try to catch everybody and stop everything that moves. We fish with a speargun, and that's the difference."
- Part of what allows that precision is technological improvements, Kirkpatrick said, including cameras and drones, which officers already routinely deploy for crowd management. They are also experimenting with for a "first responder" program similar to Jefferson Parish's recent large-scale drone deployment.
- "We used to pursue [suspects] in a car," Kirkpatrick said. "Why not put a drone up in the air? … We're going to chase you smarter."
- The department also continues a pilot program with gunfire detection technology ShotSpotter in the 5th District.
By the numbers: New Orleans ended 2025 with violent crime statistics that generally fell just shy of 2024 numbers, the department says.
- But in comparison to 2022, the stats show significant improvement.
- Murder, for example, fell 3% between 2024 and 2025. But compare 2025 to 2022, and murders fell 55%. (Outside of the Jan. 1 terror attack, which claimed 14 lives, murders fell 14% between 2024 and 2025.)
- Armed robberies fell 28% during that time frame, the department says, though that improves to a 70% decrease between 2022 and 2025.
State of play: New Orleans' crime drop also comes despite an entrenched and historic low in NOPD staffing, with 910 commissioned officers currently on the force.
- The department's goal remains to see staffing increase to 1,200, Kirkpatrick said.
Yes, but: Not every crime stat saw improvement.
- Shoplifting, for example, did increase, Kirkpatrick said, reflecting a national trend affected at least in part by some corporate policies that no longer require calling the police when those crimes occur.
The latest: With the National Guard's recent deployment in New Orleans, President Trump took credit Saturday for crime being "down to almost nothing" in the city, Fox 8 reports.
- Trump noted at the time the federal troops had been on city streets for two and a half weeks, when in reality they'd been on the ground for just five days while NOPD counted 10 people injured in shootings.
What we're watching: NOPD is starting 2026 with a new method for reporting its crime statistics. The move brings the department up to speed with other federal and state agencies' methods — but will also make it appear as though crime is increasing, officials say.
- "We're going from a system where we counted the most egregious issue as the one thing that happened," said NOPD director of analytics Jessica Nezat. "The new system tracks all the different things that happened on the same incident."