NEW ORLEANS — Homicides, shootings, carjackings and armed robberies are all up in New Orleans compared to last year. According to the city council, 10 days ago, NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson committed to sharing a plan to address the spike in violence.
Council Vice President JP Morrell said they’re still waiting for the chief to reveal his plan.
“He told council members I can’t show you my new plan because the mayor hasn’t approved it yet,” Morrell said. “Then we saw shortly afterwards, oops, there’s no plan. What that tells me is either he was lying at the meeting, or he tried to do a new plan and he wasn’t capable of coming up with one.”
Monday, Ferguson told reporters at a murder scene, there is no new plan.
“We had a plan that has been working very effectively,” Ferguson said. “Going back to 2019, we had the lowest number of murders in almost 50 years. All we have to do now is re-tweak it. Look at what we could be doing differently.”
The police superintendent is appointed by the mayor. Morrell says Chief Ferguson should be replaced.
“Until you resolve leadership challenges, until you rebuild confidence in officers that they have the best leadership possible, there’s nothing else you can do to save the NOPD. Change the chief.”
Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s Communication’s Director Beau Tidwell said the mayor is sticking by Chief Ferguson.
“Chief Ferguson has Mayor Cantrell’s full support,” Tidwell said. “The conversation around a plan, a crime plan, show us the plan, where is the plan has become a little misleading. It implies that NOPD does not have a plan, currently in place. There has been a crime plan in place and there will continue to be so.”
Tidwell said the mayor and police superintendent will give a briefing on crime and public safety at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
“Shaun Ferguson and the men and women under his command wake up every day to put their lives on the line to fight crime and to bring criminals to justice,” Tidwell said. “The way that they do that is evolving and shifts in regard to the circumstances that are in front of them.”
Councilman Morrell says the city council could take action against the chief if he doesn’t make good on his pledge to reveal a plan to combat the current violent crime wave.
“We have a department that is seemingly incapable through bad leadership of actually addressing problems,” Morrell said. “There’s a lack of leadership at the highest level of the New Orleans Police Department.”
The city council plans to release its own short and long-term crime fighting strategies on Thursday.