Violent crime is plummeting in New Orleans so far in 2024. Here's why. (2024)

After New Orleans notched the nation’s highest homicide rate in 2022, then one of its biggest turnarounds in 2023 with a25% drop in slayings, dramatic declines in violent crime have continued through the first quarter of this year.

Police officials and criminal justice stakeholders credit new partnerships and crime data analysis for recent traction against violent crime, which has nearly receded to pre-pandemic levels.

As of April 6, murders in Orleans Parish were down 31% compared to the same time last year, from 61 to 42 killings, according to NOPD data, extending reductions that took hold in the second half of 2023.

The number of non-fatal shooting victims also has declined steeply, down from 160 this time last year to 92. Armed robberies plunged 52%, from 162 to 78 reported incidents, and carjackings have fallen by a similar rate. Felony rapes ticked down as well, for an 11% decrease.

Our partners "are embracing what we know is a holistic approach to public safety,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a Friday briefing to announce $3.3 million in federal funding for criminal justice initiatives in New Orleans. “That’s exactly why we're seeing crime trends go down, and we’re leading the country in that direction.”

Data analyst Jeff Asher, who tracks violent crime data in more than 185 U.S. cities, says that New Orleans cleaves to national trends for better or for worse—”and when it’s worse, it’s much worse.”

But for the first quarter of this year, things were much better in the Crescent City. Asher projects around 150 to 160 murders for 2024 — well below the 193 murders in 2023 and 266 in 2022.

The continuing slide in violent crime comes as Gov. Jeff Landry and the GOP-dominated legislature have taken critical aim at the justice system in New Orleans.

Landry has pushed the launch of a new State Police troop in the city, while lawmakers have rolled back a host of criminal justice reforms while pointing to the surge of violence that began in 2020. A slew of tough-on-crime bills includes laws to unseal juvenile criminal records, treat 17-year-old criminal defendants as adults, and expand available methods of execution.

Intelligence and partnerships

Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams credited the gains in part to technology, touting his office's use of "risk-terrain modeling," and its work with a contractor to mine open-source intelligence to bolster criminal cases.

In a statement, Williams said the evidence culled from social media platforms including Instagram and TikTok has helped to fill in crucial gaps for prosecutors.

“​​This strategy is already helping system partners better deploy our precious resources to where the data tells us will give us the most bang for our buck,” Williams said in a statement.

NOPD officials said data analysis has allowed a shrunken force, with around 900 commissioned officers and 47 recruits as of last month, to better focus on the most vulnerable areas.

“We are working with our federal and state partners by sharing that information and working together to target violent offenders, getting firearms off the streets, and solving crimes,” officials said in a statement.

NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, who took the helm of the NOPD last fall, downplayed the department's staffing shortfall while crediting a holistic approach.

"Fighting crime takes more than just manpower," Kirkpatrick said. "It takes special tools, equipment and programs like violence intervention to work on the root causes of violence."

Among other recent measures, the department last month began ramping up traffic enforcement. Officials note that traffic stops often serve as a mechanism to help officers nab violent felons.

Feds target gun crimes

New Orleans police point to a focus on guns in the city. Police and other law enforcement agencies removed 2,700 concealed handguns from New Orleans streets last year, a significant increase from previous years, according to recent legislative testimony.

Many gun crimes are ending up in federal court in New Orleans, where U.S. Attorney Duane Evans' office continued to ramp up those prosecutions last year. Federal gun prosecutions in the Eastern District of Louisiana were up 35.6% last year compared to 2022 and have more than doubled in two years, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

Solving murders

Police clearance rates are also improved. As of March 25, the NOPD had investigated 37 homicides in the city this year and made arrests in 14 of them.

Some included swift apprehensions, such as in theMarch 11 murder of Anastasia Rayborn, 21, who was run over and rammed through the wall of a house in St. Roch. Her boyfriend, Anthony Cooper, remained on the scene and was booked with second-degree murder. Others took sleuthing.

A curious brother and ballistics tests helped homicide detectives clear two of those killings with one arrest.

Earl Simmons, 31, allegedly gunned down 27-year-old Cayla Kelley a little after 6 p.m. on Jan. 6 in the 2700 block of Washington Avenue in Central City.

Simmons’ brother showed up at the scene “to see if the decedent was his female cousin,” but he wouldn’t say what he knew, according to police. His employer, however, told a detective that the man had asked for time off because his “brother just shot his girlfriend.”

Police found nine spent 9 mm bullet casings where Kelley was killed. Testing linked those casings to another homicide four hours later at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and South Liberty Street, where Eddie Matthews, 64, was gunned down shortly after 10 p.m.

Simmons had been free on $55,000 bail, accused of firing last year on a family of five in the drive-thru lane of a Taco Bell on South Claiborne Avenue.

Williams said he was heartened but not surprised by the declines in violent crime, while claiming his office has helped restore faith in the justice system through its Civil Rights Division, which has granted relief to a few hundred prisoners.

"Our community's willingness to participate in our justice system directly reflects its confidence that the system will be fair, effective and humane," he said. "Seeing past harms corrected has created faith in the criminal justice system."

John Simerman and Jeff Adelson contributed to this report.