NEW ORLEANS — Amid leadership turmoil, low morale, and high crime, the New Orleans Police Department confirmed it has changed its social media strategy to portray a more positive image.
City Council Crime Analyst Jeff Asher tracked more than 1,300 shooting incidents since January 2021, matched them with more than 700 NOPD Twitter alerts, and found the department used Twitter to notify the public about 60 to 70 percent of shootings most months.
But then, a team of consultants, led by former New York Police Chief Fausto Pichardo and management consultant John Linder, came out with a report on how to strengthen NOPD Operations.
It recommended "controlling the narrative across all social media platforms…."
Shortly after WWL-TV first reported the Pichardo report, the number of shooting alerts on the NOPD Twitter account began to drop off the table.
NOPD spokesman Gary Scheets confirmed the change in strategy.
"There has been a shift in messaging strategy to include more news about positive departmental accomplishments and offering an increased number of voices speaking on behalf of the department to communicate those accomplishments," he said. "An increase in emphasizing department accomplishments does not mean there is less information available to inquiring media."
But City Council President Helena Moreno said many residents rely on Twitter for the information and may not get alerts from traditional news media. Very few members of the public will see the NOPD's Major Offense Log it posts each day.
Criminologist Ashraf Esmail, who runs the Center for Racial Justice at Dillard University, agrees the public has come to rely on social media for these important alerts.
"When there's a violent crime or shooting, this is a crisis going on, and the public needs to be alerted quickly," Esmail said. "And generally, the public, like many of us, have our phones. We're on the Internet right now. We get alerts very quickly."
Twitter is the most common platform for immediate alerts. The NOPD also uses Facebook and Instagram to post news, including major arrests and requests for help with investigations, but it has always used those platforms more for announcing community events and celebrating accomplishments.
One of the last clusters of multiple shooting alerts on Twitter came on Sept. 17, when three people were shot in a span of 6 minutes in two separate incidents just blocks apart.
It was a horrific night of violence in Gentilly Woods and Pines Village that left a man dead and two injured, and the public was able to follow it all on the NOPD Twitter feed within a matter of hours.
But by the end of September, Asher found only half of all shootings had made it on Twitter that month. In October, that dropped to 24 percent of them. And in November, just 7.5 percent, when only five of the 66 shootings got an alert on Twitter.
Instead, NOPD started tweeting more about arrests, holiday events, and press conferences.
Moreno agreed NOPD should do a better job touting their officers' accomplishments.
"But it doesn't mean that you then not provide any information about the negative, particularly when you're a public agency like the NOPD," she said. "The people of the city deserve to know the truth about what's happening in our community, particularly when it comes to violence."
Esmail said the department should be doing both, and tweets about shootings shouldn't hurt the NOPD's image.
"I don't see the logic of not doing it or any kind of valid reason as to not share this information," he said.
Moreno said she plans to ask NOPD to resume Twitter alerts about all major incidents as soon as possible.