Report Tells Of Headway In Crime Fight


	Print or Email This Page Report Tells Of Headway In Crime Fight City Leaders Describe N.O. Improvements June 21, 2007 The Times-Picayune By Brendan McCarthy A group of business and community leaders focused on curbing violent crime in New Orleans issued a progress report Wednesday touting some improvements in the past 100 days within the city's criminal justice system. The New Orleans Crime Coalition, comprising leaders and officials from more than 15 different civic groups, first issued a slate of planned initiatives in February 2007. Standing Wednesday on the steps of the Orleans Parish Criminal Courthouse, members said they have created a program to track criminal cases through the courts, helped push for the money and staffing of a violent offenders unit in the district attorney's office and successfully lobbied for more than $6 million in federal funding for crime-fighting measures. "This unprecedented alignment of a diverse group of business and civic organizations has produced actual creative results in this essential fight against crime," said Gregory Rusovich, the president and chief executive officer of TransOceanic Shipping Co. Inc., who spoke on behalf of the Business Council of New Orleans. Among the initiatives under way is a new program to track high-profile criminal cases through the court system. Organizers said volunteers are needed and that more information can be found at www.courtwatchnola.com. Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a municipal watchdog group, highlighted the district attorney's violent offender unit as a key reform. Raises approved by the City Council gave the elite unit's attorneys a raise of about $20,000 each. Goyeneche said this allows District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office to hire and keep the most experienced, top attorneys within the office. The city's violent crime rate rose steadily after Katrina and remains at alarming levels. Meanwhile, the city's criminal justice system remains fractured and the police force works with limited resources. The city's 2006 per-capita homicide rate ranks highest in the country. With at least 92 slayings this year, the city is well on pace to surpass last year's homicide total of 162. Flozell Daniels, chairman of the Urban League of Greater New Orleans, said creating a safe city is not a possibility "but a requirement." Daniels said the Orleans Parish jury pool has been "dramatically reduced" since Hurricane Katrina. He urged citizens to step forward and volunteer a couple days each month serving on a jury. New Orleans Police Deputy Chief John Bryson credited the coalition with bringing different community groups together, calling it "community policing at its best." He also proclaimed that New Orleans "has been one of the safest cities in the world." He acknowledged it may not appear so, but said it will "once again" be the safest once the "drug situation" and "economic situation" come under control. NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley is in Norway this week at a conference. Several of the speakers Wednesday demanded accountability and transparency in reforming the criminal justice system. Each emphasized the importance of keeping the city's most violent offenders off the streets.
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