NEW ORLEANS — When a spike in violent crime reached crisis levels earlier this year, sparking the City Council and public to demand action, Mayor LaToya Cantrell quickly created a Violent Crime Reduction Task Force.
In a controversial move, Cantrell named Orleans Parish Communications District Director Tyrell Morris to head up the group. Not only did Morris come without a law enforcement background, he already was facing criticism over his agency’s mishandling of some 9-1-1 calls.
Chief Juvenile Court Judge Ranord Darensburg was named to the task along with more than a dozen other criminal justice leaders, administration officials and two city council members
In one early indicator of the impromptu creation of the task force, Darensburg said he was never told about the group or its mission. He said he was never even formally invited.
“I was never personally contacted prior to its initiation, or what its mission was or what it was supposed to accomplish,” he said. “It was, for me, not enough information about what it is their mission was. What was the purpose?”
With so many unanswered questions, Darensburg said he never attended a single task force meeting. He sent Juvenile Court Judicial Administrator Yolanda Johnson in his place and received updates from her. He said his lingering questions continued with Morris as the head of the group.
“I don't know why Mr. Morris was chosen to lead the committee,” Darensburg said. “To be perfectly honest, I was not familiar with his background.”
More questions about the task force and its impact only grew with each passing month.
Aside from one contentious City Council meeting in April seeking a progress report from Morris, the group worked largely under the radar. But there was one high-profile event in March that did not help the group’s image.
Led by Cantrell and Morris, officials assembled on March 22 at the long-defunct Paradise Carwash in Gert Town to oversee its demolition after several crimes, including a fatal shooting, took place there. But before the bulldozers could roll, the demolition was halted when the owner of the closed car wash went to court and obtained a restraining order.
“They had a spectacular press event that turned into a spectacular failure and, suddenly, all the (task force) press conferences went away,” City Council President J.P. Morrell said.
Morrell was among the original skeptics of the task force under Morris' leadership. That skepticism turned to criticism after the carwash debacle and, then, after subsequent task force meetings failed to produce a plan.
“There has to be be objective criteria that you hold someone to account as to whether they were successful or not successful,” Morrell said. “The violent crime task force never had a plan, met in secret, never produced results.”
Even without a written plan, some task force members defended the meetings as a good starting point with candid discussions.
City Council member and task force member Oliver Thomas said assembling the heads of different city agencies – including NOPD, courts and even the city’s homeland security and health departments – led to idea-sharing and synchronicity that could pay dividends in the long run.
“Whether its attacking blight, trash, litter, lack of services or other things that create an environment for violent crime, its important for everyone to be able to share and communicate their efforts,” Thomas said.
Thomas, however, said the task force needs to advance its mission by producing a written plan, something that did not happen under Morris.
For his part, Judge Darensburg said he is open to participating in the future if its mission becomes more concrete.
“I hope in the future,” Darensburg said, “the task force will seek to involve criminologists and some data that speaks to what these actual problems are so that we are able to focus our efforts.”
City Communications Director Greg Joseph, himself a task force member, said the effort remains a high priority for the administration. He said the group will request all working documents from Morris and meet soon to select a new leader.
Most importantly, Joseph said, the work of the group will continue as just one of many elements of a holistic effort to curb violence and the social ills that fuel it.
“The work of the task force goes on every day,” he said, “and we’re starting to see results with the reduction in violent crime. This is just one of many things we’re doing (in the administration) to keep that trend going.”