Pigpocketed... and other items from the police blotter

Responding to various criticisms of Chief Serpas's violent crime statistics which appear to suggest that New Orleans is doing pretty well... except for all the murdering, the Inspector General's office has promised to evaluate the Chief's numbers independently.

Criminologists say the city’s reported rates of such assaults — and violent-crime rates overall — are suspiciously low given New Orleans’ stubbornly high murder rate, which in recent years has been the highest in the nation. Morrell, saying the numbers “don’t make sense,” filed a resolution Monday asking the legislative auditor to scrutinize the data more closely.

Experts have said that aggravated assault rates tend to rise in tandem with murder rates, as both crimes are essentially the expression of similar violent impulses. But that hasn’t been the case in New Orleans, which reports a rate of assault much lower than many other comparable cities.

Recall that Serpas's tenure as police chief in Nashville was also marred by similar allegations of statistical "fudging."

Under federal rules, police can tell the public that they solved a crime only if they've made an arrest -- or cleared it by what's called an "exception."

Exceptional clearances mean they've got a suspect, they know where the suspect is, they've got enough evidence to charge the suspect, but they cannot proceed -- usually because either the DA or the victim doesn't want to prosecute.

"When I blew into town in 2004," Serpas said, "these people didn't know who I was from Adam and they were clearing cases by exception the way they had been clearing them forever. When we found out, we fixed it."

Yet, take a look at what Metro police told the TBI.

Beginning in 2006, the number of crimes against persons and property that were cleared by exception -- essentially just written off -- outpaced the number of crimes cleared by arrest.

In any case, this isn't the best time to try telling New Orleanians their violent crime problem isn't as bad as they think it is.  For one thing, the Mother's Day shootings are still very much on everyone's mind. Tomorrow night, there will be a benefit concert held on behalf of the victims.

And just this morning, we opened our internet to find three more reports of brazen criminal activity.  Here's a brutal mugging caught on video in the 400 block of Carondelet Street downtown.  Last night, Criminal Court Judge Frank Marullo was carjacked in front of his own home. Sadly, according to Judge Marullo, it's "just part of the scene"

"This is a very typical situation," Marullo said after spending a few hours on the bench Wednesday. "I hate to say it: It's nothing unusual."

 And then there's, perhaps, the most shocking assault of all.

The New Orleans Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance in locating a stolen statue of a pig in a chef’s outfit. The statue was stolen on the morning of May 1, 2013 during Jazz Fest weekend.

If the pig remains missing for much longer, the police may try trolling Bayou St. John again. There's always the neatest stuff down there. But if he does happen to turn up, we might suggest replacing his crawfish sign with one of those "NOLA For Life" signs you see around town.  Nothing better than to help a victim become part of the solution, you know. 

Meanwhile, this afternoon, a City Council committee meeting is attempting to determine just how effective that solution is.

Landrieu has touted NOLA for Life as a “comprehensive plan to end murder and violent crime in our city.” In addition to Ceasefire New Orleans and the Mayor’s Strategic Command to Reduce Murders (a program inspired by the Milwaukee model), SOS NOLA  Midnight Basketball and a new multi-agency gang unit are among programs under the NOLA for Life umbrella.

City budget documents for 2013 don’t include a NOLA For Life line item or separate items showing how parts of the plan are funded.

In a May 20 email to Morse, provided by Fraser, Guidry requested information that would help with a cost analysis of the program.

“Please get this information to me today, so that I may have time to review and prepare for Wednesday’s meeting.  As we discussed, this would be the data collected regarding the cost of each of the programs and the effectiveness, the performance measures used, etc.,” Guidry’s email said.

But according to the rest of that Lens article, Council hasn't yet received a full accounting of  NOLA For Life's multifarious funding sources and program goals.   It does include some statistics. Still, I keep coming back to criminologist David Kennedy's prediction that NOLA For Life would bring about a "real difference" in violent crime "within six months"  Whatever else these programs might have accomplished in that time, it's difficult to convince anyone they've met that goal. 

The Lens is "live-blogging" the hearing right now as I type this.  You can follow those notes at the bottom of the article linked here.