With more than 120 contact hours of interviews at NOPD, the Assessment Team found many members of the Homicide Section to be professionally oriented, dedicated to their mission, and hard-working. They understand the diverse strife that both the city and police department have experienced and are attempting to overcome those challenges in order to serve the city in the most effective way possible to make New Orleans a safe and just community.
Interesting also that DOJ doesn't think the homicide rate here is as strongly (or as I read it intractably) gang-related as it is in other cities. Oh and unlike the civil rights report it lays a lot more of the blame for the current high murder rate on the flood.
While an array of economic, social, and political variables have aggravated both the commission of homicides and the reduced capability to clear those crimes, the inescapable glue that binds these aggravating factors together in recent years is ―the storm.‖
Still reading. More later.
Update: Already I found a funny. I'm still trying to figure out what they mean about the murder rate not being driven by gang activity if they simultaneously place so much emphasis on the drug trade.
Collectively, since drug trafficking is a causal factor in a significant number of homicides in the city, the successes of these collective efforts would reduce drug trafficking and therefore reduce homicides that are directly or collaterally related to the illicit drug trade. Systemic problems require systemic solutions.
Defining strategic priorities also provides guidance to the organization on the allocation of personnel and resources. Necessarily, some enforcement activities may be reduced in order to provide more personnel and resources to the priorities. For example, enforcement of prostitution, traffic, illicit gambling, and pawn shop details may be reduced in order to have personnel and resources focus on drug enforcement.
Did DOJ just tell Serpas to knock it off with all the damn traffic checkpoints?
Upperdate: One of the first conclusions in the report, unsurprisingly, is that Homicide is understaffed. The report recommends that staffing be increased by at least 10 people or more depending on whether or not you count an additional "cold case" squad. The aim is to assign each investigator a maximum of 6 cases per year. Which may be difficult considering this anticipated bump in the workload.
Interviews with the District Attorney’s staff indicated that the District Attorney is reexamining a significant number of homicide cases that the preceding District Attorney declined to prosecute. This initiative could involve as many as 400 cases and would obviously place a significant strain on the resources of the Homicide Section. Many of these cases are not ―cold‖ in the traditional sense;9 rather, they simply were not pursued for prosecution for a variety of reasons.
Uppestdate: The report also finds that homicide investigators are badly under-equipped. Apparently investigators are responsible for providing tools such as digital voice recorders or cameras out of their own pockets resulting in varying quality of such equipment as well as compatibility issues. Also it goes without saying that their computers suck. Oh and there's this.
When suspects and witnesses are brought to the Homicide Section for questioning, it is essential to have an audio recording of the interview and highly preferable to have a video recording. These recordings are useful for follow-up investigations; helpful in sorting out conflicting statements; important for credibility in the quality of the statement, including demonstrating adherence to civil rights protections; valuable for developing a case for prosecution; useful for prosecutors in presenting cases in court; and important evidence to help internal investigations should an Investigator be accused of improper conduct during an interview. Examining the interview rooms at the Homicide Section offices revealed that only one room had a functioning audio recording system and it was dated. Without the ability to functionally use all of the interview rooms during an investigation—or more importantly, multiple concurrent investigations—the utility and efficiency of the Homicide Section is significantly reduced
Not expecting NOPD to miraculously find the money to resolve any of that anytime soon, let alone provide the increased overtime and more liberal use of take-home vehicles the report also recommends.
Uppesterdate: Another funny,
While there is more work that is needed to fully develop the Scientific Investigation Division, they do have a functional forensic analysis capability. Ironically, NOPD Investigators are not fully aware of the division’s analytic capability. Some Investigators stated that the department did not have a functional crime laboratory. This obviously indicates a communication problem.
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