NEW ORLEANS -- Polaris driving patrols have become a regular sight in the French Quarter.
"When we have the blue lights riding around, we feel a lot safer and a lot more comfortable on the streets," said John Church, a French Quarter resident.
The private funding for this French Quarter Task Force is over as of Saturday. Local business man Sidney Torres promised two months funding. Now he wants the city to step up and keep the program going.
"Obviously we can't expect Sidney Torres to fund this forever, so we came to an agreement that we would look for short-term funding from other business leaders, and then the city agreed that they would look for another form of funding to keep it going for the rest of the year," said Bob Simms of the French Quarter Task Force.
Sims lives in the French Quarter and helped form the task force. He said in the first seven weeks, patrols responded to more than 1,400 incidents and made nearly 80 arrests.
"The pro-activeness of having those Polaris vehicles with open sides and being accessible to not only pedestrians on the street, but also seeing the criminal element on the street and recognizing that, has been a big success," he said.
Sims said the task force app also plays a big role in the success of the program. With nearly 8,000 downloads, Sims said the public becomes the eyes and ears of local law enforcement.
"I think it's great. It's great that we had somebody step up and provide support to the French Quarter, to give us what we needed to make it a safer place, and it's been a safer place since we've had that," Church said.
Next is expansion. Bourbon Street businesses are funding a foot patrol of off duty NOPD to form the Bourbon Patrol.
"Having those two programs work together would be huge," Simms said.
You can download the task force app by searching "French Quarter Task Force" in your app store.
