NEW ORLEANS — Interim New Orleans Police Superintendent Michelle Woodfork marked her first 100 days as chief on a positive note Monday, announcing that most categories of violent crime are down for the year and, overall, the often-troubled department appears to be heading in the right direction.
At a press briefing at police headquarters, Woodfork announced that murder, non-fatal shootings and armed robbery are all down year-to-date. Over the first three months of the year, here is where those crime categories stand:
-- Murder, 60 in 2023 compared to 69 in 2022, a 12% decrease.
-- Non-fatal shootings, 108 compared to 118 in 2022, an 11% decrease.
-- Armed robbery, 152 compared to 218 in 2022, a 28% decrease.
-- Carjackings, 67 compared to 148 in 2022, a 55% decrease.
Woodfork admitted that crime trends over short periods can fluctuate week to week, but the steep drop-off in carjackings appears to be at least partially a result of the re-deployment of front-line officers to crime hotspots determined by data analysis.
The picture has not been so positive for property crimes over the first quarter, however, with those crimes overall up 13%. A large part of that upswing can be attributed to the dramatic increase in auto theft, which has been reported 2,152 times over the first three months compared to 862 over the same period last year, an alarming 150% increase.
While Woodfork stopped short of making a correlation between the rise in auto thefts and the decrease in carjackings she pointed out that more than 50% of the vehicles stolen are Hyundais and Kia models.
Recent posts on social media have provided step-by-step instructions on how to easily hot-wire those makes of car using a USB port.
The number of auto thefts equates to almost exactly one stolen vehicle every hour, and if that frequency continues through the end of the year, the number would set a new record for the city.
Woodfork said one tactic the department will soon be using to curb that spike will be the use of bait cars.
“The bait car program which makes use of a specially made car that will be placed in areas with a statistically heightened risk of auto theft,” she said.
A bait car is a rigged decoy under a police surveillance vehicle that automatically shuts off and locks the would-be thieves inside. The program was used in New Orleans about a decade ago, Woodfork said the department is now shopping for a vendor to restart the program.
Despite progress in crime-fighting, Woodfork acknowledged continuing challenges in hiring and recruiting, with the number of officers still at an all-time low of fewer than 940.
She said scheduled March retention bonuses are currently being paid out, with officers eligible for up to $10,000 over time depending on their years of service.
Not only has the incentive program slowed attrition, Woodfork said it has jump-started a creative approach to boosting troop strength by luring back some officers who recently left the force.
“We implemented a phone bank headed by deputy chiefs and command staff to call former officers who recently resigned to inform them of retention pay and determine interest in returning to the department,” she said. “This effort yielded approximately 13 requests for reinstatement with seven currently in background (checks).”
If those former officers pass the background checks, they would be able to join patrols almost right away, Woodfork said.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.