Jun 05 2009
WATCHDOG GROUP BLAMES NOPD FOR HIGH CRIME RATE
A news report by Jay Todd
The Metropolitan Crime Commission President said the NOPD is partly to blame for the high crime rate in New Orleans.
Last year, 46 percent of the arrests in the city were non-violent or traffic offenses, according to a report compiled by the commission. The MCC President Rafael Goyeneche said more police manpower should be focused on building more solid cases against the more violent ex-convicts.
“The only people that you can really remove from the community if you obtain a conviction are the violent felony perpetrators and weapon felony perpetrators,” Goyeneche said. “We see that those are some of the lowest arrest to conviction ratios that are out there.”
The report indicates that out of all the most serious arrests in 2007, less than 25 percent resulted in conviction.
NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley said a state attorney general supports the police department’s current system and arrest procedures.
Riley also said not all crimes are the same, because there are times when it’s in the best interest of the people to arrest a person accused of a lesser crime.
Jay Todd can be reached at jtodd@uno.edu
