Over the past sixty days, New Orleans seen a continued elevated focus on, and actions towards, public safety in our community. Crime and quality-of-life are now daily topics of our elected leaders, the media, and the public. Moreover, this focus has been followed by action. While it is too early to necessarily correlate to results, the work we have seen is promising, and appears to be driving nascent improvement. These recent actions include:
- NOPD redeployed 75 commissioned officers to begin patrol duty, increasing the number of officers on-duty in all districts
- The Cantrell Administration is proposing large portion of $195M of ARPA (Tranche 2) to be invested in public safety, and is currently working through details with the City Council
- The Civil Service Commission unanimously approved the Administration’s NOPD Recruitment & Retention Plan
- District Attorney Jason Williams has started to post a new set of accountability dashboards for the DA’s office
- Captain Ron Rasmussen has been brought in from Seattle to advise on technology integration for NOPD
- Over $3.6M has been raised for investment in Youth Services, and nearly $1M was given out to 23 nonprofits by the United Way
- The NOLA Coalition has started scoping “211 Express,” and app to provide seamless access to social services
The full report, found here, summarizes progress, and outstanding needed actions, within the context of the NOLA Coalition’s two platforms.