NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams and NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson held separate press conferences on Wednesday to provide updates on how the City plans to tackle the uptick in crime to start the new year.
"My head is on a swivel when I get out to get gas. If my mother, my wife or anybody in my family is out late, I’m nervous about what can happen. I’m as fed up as every other citizen is in this community," Williams said.
Williams and Ferguson both claimed that they were not trying to point fingers at one another, but there was obvious tension between the two criminal justice leaders.
Williams held his press conference first and he pointed out FBI data on the NOPD's performance on solving crimes.
"The FBI data for 2020 states that the NOPD only solved 30% of murders, 35% of armed robberies, and only 8% of car thefts. The only way to combat this current crime spike is to make arrests for these violent crimes. That percentage has to go up from 35%, 30%, and 8%. That is the simple truth. That is the math." Williams said.
Williams said the numbers are not an indictment of the men and women of the police department, but about how they are being deployed in the community. He believes the solve rate is critical to making New Orleans a safer place.
The district attorney's office is focused on finding solutions and Williams believes that starts with prioritizing the screening and prosecution of violent crimes like homicides, shootings, armed robberies and carjackings.
Shortly after Williams's presser ended, Ferguson stepped to the podium and stated it wasn't going to be a back and forth and that it's all about the safety of the city.
Ferguson said that he and Williams met last week and the two discussed the things that needed to be fixed.
"I really thought we had identified some meaningful, actionable items in which we can work together on," Ferguson said.
However, it seems the chief and DA didn't work out all their issues. Ferguson called it "unfortunate" that Williams has seen his statements as a "personal attack."
"It's not personal. I think (our meeting) was an opportunity. If he had a problem with my statements, that he defined as rhetoric and I feel is reality, last week was that opportunity to express (that) and it did not happen," Ferguson said.
Both criminal justice leaders agree though, that we all need New Orleans to be a safer place and it's going to take both of them working together to make that happen.
"We have an issue within our criminal justice system in holding individuals accountable. To no fault of any component of this system. COVID has given us unprecedented challenges that we all collectively need to figure out how to overcome them," Ferguson said.