NEW ORLEANS — Former New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison will be working with the Orleans District Attorney’s Office as a liaison with law enforcement, District Attorney Jason Williams announced Tuesday.
Harrison recently stepped down as the police commissioner in Baltimore. Prior to that time, he had been the superintendent of police appointed by former Mayor Mitch Landrieu in 2014.
“I am glad to be home,” said Harrison, who will be consulting the district attorney’s office on, as District Attorney Jason Williams said, the “good deal of road between probable cause in the street and beyond a reasonable doubt in court.”
When Harrison left New Orleans, it had recently marked its lowest murder rate – 146 in 2018, in nearly a half a century. While a number of factors are involved in a city’s homicide rate, New Orleans had nearly double that rate of killings in 2022 with 280. There has been a significant reduction in murder in New Orleans in 2023, but, at more than 210 so far this year, it is still nearly 50 percent more than in Harrison’s final year.
Harrison was succeeded by Shaun Ferguson, who stepped down earlier this year. He was replaced on an interim basis by Michelle Woodfork and permanently by Anne Kirkpatrick.
As new superintendent, Kirkpatrick said she welcomes Harrison and any help in crime prevention.
Williams says the move to bring Harrison into the violent crime case process was easy.
“When I learned he was preparing to resign from his post as commissioner in Baltimore, it was a no-brainer... I want to squeeze every bit of expertise from this man."