Problem-oriented Policing

Dr. George Capowich of Loyola University spoke at the Crime Prevention Roundtable II last Saturday about establishing a university-based research consortium at Loyola involving all the area universities to produce research that law enforcement can use to craft a problem-oriented approach to policing. He talked about the importance of research and using it to fight crime and to pursue a holistic approach to crime fighting.

What he said about problem-oriented policing was not really specific, but is sounded good to me. He said it does three things:

1) It broadens the information police use to understand crime, like census data and other information that criminologists and sociologists use.

He said, “One of the characteristics about violence is that it is very situational. It happens at the spur of the moment. It’s based on past relationships and the circumstances that are present on the street. Problem-oriented policing tries to find, does find the information that bears on that, it uses that, it analyzes that whole gamut of information to try and craft responses and solutions.”

2) It relies heavily on active engagement of law enforcement with the community, including the people who live in the communities and the organizations, non-profits, and city departments that operate in the communities.

He made an interesting point about the relationship between non-profit organizations and the city: “The non-profit sector in this community accounts for 12% of the employment in social services in this city. That is very high. In many cities around the country those are things that citizens expect to get from their government. In New Orleans, you get it from the non-profit community.”

3) It has very specific implementation: scanning (analyzing information), crafting a response, implementing it, and evaluating it.

Capowich rated the three ways to reduce violence:

1) Law enforcement only: least effective
2) Law enforcement strategies coupled with good community relations: more effective
3) Law enforcement strategies, with good community relations, and police problem-oriented approaches: most effective

This approach uses reactive as well as preventive strategies. I like it.

D.A. Jordan's Crime Update

At the Crime Prevention Roundtable II Saturday, New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan gave the small audience a D.A.’s office update.

Here are the highlights of his highlights, with a few quotes. I took these from an audio recording I made, so you may cite the figures and quotes safely. I worked seven years at a TV news station, so I know a thing or two about accurate reporting. I also assume the Roundtable has been or will be broadcast on public access television, so you can check me.

The sound quality of my recordings is not broadcast quality. Otherwise, I would post the audio. But, if you really want to hear it, you can email me (email address is in the sidebar) and I will send it to you.

New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan’s Update at the Crime Prevention Roundtable II, August 11, 2007

Screening Division – Keva (Kee’-vuh) Landrum appointed chief of Screening Division; screening division is where case begins: initial appearance of offender, bond set, D.A. receives police report, then screening process begins; specialized screening assistants (narcotics, sex offenders)

6,304 arrests for state charges, Jan 1-Jun 30 – “While I fully respect the assistance provided by the federal government, you can see that our numbers are much, much, larger.”; screening division has screened 6,660 cases, Jan 1-Jun 30; charges accepted in 56% of those cases; “…the national norm with regard to local prosecutors is roughly around 50% or so. So, we’re certainly within that range…”; “before the storm we were up to 70% in our acceptance rate”; 3,750 cases accepted, 2,910 refused

Witness participation still problem in victim crimes – trying to provide more than temporary housing; “We have relocated individuals to other parts of state and as well as to a safe house in another state that we maintain as a safe place for, a safe haven for our crime victims and witnesses. And we don’t relocate individuals. We relocate families many times. And many times we’re talking about single parents with several children. And it is a tremendous challenge because my office has never been allocated any funding for this kind of service.”; the most recent federal appropriation has money for victim/witness assistance

701 releases – “The 701 release problem… which had pretty much come to an end before the storm. We had very few cases resulting in 701 releases.”; “The 701 release period is the 60 day time period after an arrest occurs during which the police and prosecutors have an opportunity to get the information into the D.A.’s office so that the prosecutor can make an informed decision about the merits of the charge. And, if insufficient information I available, then of course the case cannot be accepted. The problem since the storm has had to do with drug cases and the unavailability of our drug lab. And, that problem continues to exist but it is not as great a problem as it once was.”; Jan: 580 releases; Jun: 118; Jul: 150; 74% decrease from January; “The overwhelming majority of these 701 releases are still drug related, even with our acceptance of the field tests that’s been talked about. The field tests were never the issue. It’s always been a problem of the crime lab. But, the crime lab is more functional now. And so, the 701 release problem is going away. That’s a good thing.”

Economic crime – D.A. has received 2,000 complaints of contractor fraud; 88 active investigations; 20 outstanding arrest warrants; 45 cases pending trial; $222,000 obtained by D.A. office in restitution

Trial Division – at least 2 prosecutors assigned to every section (12 sections) of court; “It is our goal always to closely supervise our young prosecutors, many of which have less than two years experience as trial attorneys.”; salaries higher; 177 cases tried since Jan 07; 67% conviction rate for judge trials; 63% conviction rate for jury trials; 1490 convictions; 1384 convictions in pleas; 106 convictions in trials

Violent Defender Unit – “Violent crime is, I believe, the number one concern of the citizens of New Orleans. And, certainly, homicides are part of that. And, I have always believed that every life – every life – is valuable. Every life is important. And, it’s not that a person has a particular title or a particular status in the community.

I did not know Dinneral Shavers. I didn’t have the privilege of knowing him. But I know that he was, based on all accounts, he was a man of tremendous importance to this community.

But we have many people who have criminal histories. Maybe homicide victims who have criminal histories. We treat their cases with the same respect and professionalism that we treat Mr. Shavers’ case.

It’s important in every case that we have witnesses come forward. And, when we do have sufficient evidence, we will accept that case for prosecution and we will do everything in our power to make sure that that person is brought to justice and justice is served.”

Violent Defender Unit (con’t) – assign homicide cases to violent defender unit; 9 violent defender prosecutors; most experienced prosecutors; average experience is 10 years in violent defender unit; 92% conviction rate

Child Support Division – $27 million collected in child support in 2006

Public Corruption Unit – majority of cases resulted in successful prosecutions

Commentary to come later.

Chief Riley's Crime Update

At the Crime Prevention Roundtable II yesterday, Police Superintendent Warren Riley gave the small audience an NOPD update.

Here are the highlights of his highlights, with a few quotes. I took these from an audio recording I made, so you may cite the figures and quotes safely. I worked seven years at a TV news station, so I know a thing or two about accurate reporting. I also assume the Roundtable has been or will be broadcast on public access television, so you can check me.

The sound quality of my recordings is not broadcast quality. Otherwise, I would post the audio. But, if you really want to hear it, you can email me (email address is in the sidebar) and I will send it to you.

Police Superintendent Warren Riley’s Update at the Crime Prevention Roundtable II

In-car camera system – 70 cameras have been installed out of 109

Attrition rate – lost 500 police officers after the storm; were losing 18-19 police officers a month; two weeks ago, largest recruit class in NOPD history started; 160-170 officers are back on the streets; right now, losing about 11 officers a month; before Katrina, losing 10 officers a month; “We’re beginning to stabilize that situation.”

Check points – “have been highly effective”; placed in high crime areas and highly trafficked areas where drugs come in; “It’s been successful in us taking over 70 hardcore wanted subjects off the streets of New Orleans.”; “Our largest drug bust this year came from a traffic check point.”; 14 officers on check points

Statistics for 2007 – will be released next week comparing last six months of 2006 and 2007; “And one thing that we have made some progress in, but we still certainly have a long way to go, is that you will see that our murder rate has dropped by 8.75%.”

Training – officers have been trained in what the D.A. wants; D.A.s went through same training

10-point plan with D.A. – meet every two weeks with D.A. staff

Crime Lab – “Our crime lab is now up and running.”; at UNO; about 40% of equipment is in; have run some drug and ballistics tests

Evidence Room – two weeks ago signed a new lease on a property to store evidence

New interoperable radio system – “We should never ever have a problem handling an emergency with the radio system like we had during Katrina.”

Neighborhood Watch organizations – 155 total; 36 are new

NONPAC meetings – well attended by citizens

Focus on youth – over 500 kids in Cops for Kids summer program

Focus on domestic violence – Domestic Violence Unit went from 4 to 7 officers

Mental illness – trained over 125 officers to deal with mental illness; NOPD handles 200 mental illness transports a month to hospitals

Schools – officers at certain schools at bus stops; officers will check places where truants hang out; working with RSD Superintendent Paul Vallas to open a truancy center; “Last year, truants were brought back to the schools. It is not a successful way to deal with truants because, basically, they go back to school and they leave out again as soon as we leave.”

Partnership with federal government – since February, 85 cases have been turned over to the U.S. attorneys office; “Of those 85, 75 have been indicted, 40 have been convicted.”

Reaching out to Hispanic community – handing out pamphlets (I assume in Spanish, although Riley did not specify); identifying and using officers that speak Spanish; “Right now Los Angeles has a major gang war between the Hispanic community and the African-American community. A very violent situation. We’re trying to get ahead of that.”

Sex Crime Unit – located 912 out of 1350 that were registered pre-Katrina

New Crime Mapping Tool on website – info goes back to Jan 2005; some information is on it within 24 hours; every crime is reported within ten days

RAND study on officer retention – adopted recommendations; “The New Orleans Police Department is now the highest paid police department in the state. That has a lot to do with our highest recruit class ever that we started two weeks ago. That has a lot to do with our attrition rate dropping from 18 to 11 a month. And, within that 11 a month, 5 or 6 are retiring because they have 28, 29, 30 years on. But they are no longer just leaving for other departments.”

Working with juvenile court – Judge David Bell and the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative

$6.6 million from the State Appropriations Committee – will begin ordering equipment over the next couple of weeks

Commentary to come later.

Mayor Nagin Has Taken the Positive Pledge, Too

As I make an effort to be positive, I want to surround myself with people also trying to stay positive. I attended the Crime Prevention Roundtable (pdf) at Gallier Hall today, and I am glad to see that Mayor Nagin also wants to stay positive:

The media keeps beating on everything that happens that’s wrong. If we have a sensational event as it relates to criminal activity, that’s all you here about over and over and over again. And it’s rare that we have any balance to this. So this is our opportunity for us to provide some balance.

Most intelligent people out in our community are looking for that balance. Some folk is just negative and that’s just the way they going to be. And there’s nothing we can do about that. But for the majority of our citizens, it’s incumbent upon us to give you the truth and to give you the facts so you can really understand what’s going on.

And to my friends who keep trying to portray the city in its worst light: Stop. Even when they talk about murders and violent crimes, they link it up to other parishes around this area to make it seem like New Orleans is totally out of control.

Why are you doing that? I don’t know. But it would be nice if you would stop.

That’s my transcript and my emphasis.

Nagin also provided an accountability moment that BSJD or any other blogger might want to fact check when he commented:

So many of the initiatives that we talked about many months ago, six, twelve months ago, we have put in place. If you go back and check the record, just about everything we told the public we would do, we’re either doing or have done. And it’s starting to make some impact in our city.

He was, of course, referring to crime initiatives, of which here are the highlights:

Increased pay for police.
A record breaking 71 recruits in the latest class.
New police cars.
“Crime cameras up in most areas of the city.”
In-car cameras.
“…latest and greatest in technology to the NOPD.”
$7 million from state to NOPD.
Crime walks.
Increased checkpoints.
Federal partnerships.
Focus on kids, like the Cops for Kids Program.

I am not sure where the crime cameras stand. I am also not sure if they are “up in most areas of the city.” That’s one for Dambala.


Mayor Nagin also took the positive route on population figures, which is nothing new:

We as a community have to unite. We are 300,000 strong in this recovery and the numbers are growing everyday.

The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center estimated the New Orleans population at 300,000 using mail delivery numbers. But Greg Rigamer set the population at 274,000. Nagin has said in the past that Rigamer’s number does not include migrant workers.

Nagin also shed some light on maybe why he’s only “somewhat” worried about the New Orleans brand when it comes to the murder rate:

I know one murder is way too many. We are going to continue to try to bring this city to a zero point. But, just to give you an indication of the trends, this past July – which July historically has been our most violent month as relates to crime – this past July, we recorded 14 murders. Four of those murders were carryovers from somebody being shot in a previous month. Compare that to one year earlier, and there were 23 murders.

So, as you can see, we are starting to see some trends. And we’re not happy with it. But we’re starting to see some trends that suggest things that we put in place are starting to have some impact.

July had the second lowest number of murders of any month this year. February saw 13 murders by my count, but had three less days than July. So, yes, that is positive.

One month earlier in June, however, there were 19 murders by my count, the most of any month. And we are averaging a murder every other day for 2007 even with the lower total in July.

The fact that the population is going up but more people are not being murdered is a good thing. That could mean that our violent crime prevention initiatives are working. Or it could mean that the new population isn’t moving to areas where they might be killed.

I heard a lot of good things at the Crime Prevention Roundtable. If I have time, I will post more transcripts and good things.

And heed the Mayor’s words. Stop the negativity!