NEW ORLEANS — Tuesday afternoon NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson addressed the recent violent crime in the city with a sobering message.
“We are really seeing some horrific crimes to occur,” he said.
In the last two weeks, NOPD has worked nine homicides, 23 non-fatal shootings, and 15 armed robberies. Many have been cleared by arrests or warrants, but Chief Ferguson said NOPD officers are often re-arresting the same people, especially juveniles.
“We have not had a full jury trial since this pandemic began and that is no small matter. It plays a major role in what we’re seeing today,” he said. “Because we are seeing justice delayed, our criminals are becoming more brazen.”
Chief Ferguson believes the pandemic’s effect on the court system is partly to blame.
“We won’t see this revolving door end until our judicial system has become fully operational again. It is very demoralizing to the officers of course, but we have to keep doing what we can as law enforcement officers; remaining engaged, remaining vigilant.”
“It’s frustrating because the police officers keep arresting the same kids over and over again. They look at it as a revolving door and the thing that tells the story to the police officers is the kids kind of laugh at them, tell them ‘you can’t arrest me’ or ‘nothing’s going to happen if you arrest me’ and often times that’s true because they’re right back on the street,” said Ralph Brandt, a former Chief of the DA’s Juvenile Division.
Brandt agrees with Chief Ferguson regarding how court proceedings are currently being handled playing a part in holding criminals accountable.
“We’re doing a lot of the proceedings by zoom mechanisms and kids didn’t take juvenile court seriously before and they take it less seriously now because there is no face to face contact with the judge,” he said. “It’s not saying the consequences need to be jail time, but they need to be held accountable.”