NEW ORLEANS — Mayor Latoya Cantrell says violent crime is down in New Orleans since Michelle Woodfork took the reigns as interim superintendent.
But is that true?
For this Breakdown, we’re looking at crime data from the Metro Crime Commission and the City Council Crime Dashboard, and some dissection by data analyst Jeff Asher.
Asher wrote in his Substack newsletter Monday morning that there are positive trends in the city’s murder rate, NOPD recruitment, and response times for 2023.
Here at the numbers:
The Metro Crime Commission trends for the last week show that homicides are down 14%, nonfatal shootings are down 10%, and armed robbery is down 19% since 2022.
Those numbers are slightly different than what the City Council Crime Dashboard shows.
Based on the NOPD Calls for Service Database, there has been almost a 20% decrease in homicides since 2022, a 9% decrease in non-fatal shootings, and about a 15% decrease in armed robbery relative to 2022.
No matter the exact numbers, both agree that the violent crime landscape in New Orleans is improving. But for greater context, gun violence is still dramatically higher than the beginning of the crime surge in 2020.
Asher wrote in his newsletter: “New Orleans is on pace for 241 murders in 2023 which, if realized, would be a 9% decline from 2022 but the second-most murders in a year here since Katrina. Yes gun violence is falling, but it is still higher now than it has been than pretty much any time post-Katrina.”
But we can answer: yes. Violent crime in New Orleans has decreased since Woodfork was appointed interim chief just before Christmas.
And it’s likely those gains will factor into her application to become superintendent permanently.
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