Post-Katrina violent crime still rising
Violent crime in N.O. soaring — maybe
by Brendan McCarthy, The Times-Picayune
Sunday February 17, 2008, 7:05 PM
By Brendan McCarthy
Staff writer
Violent crime skyrocketed last year in New Orleans as population continued to return to the city, rising 53 percent in raw numbers of incidents and at least 22 percent on a per-capita basis.
Last week, the New Orleans Police Department released the latest crime statistics, along with an analysis that showed violent crime stayed relatively flat, on a per-capita basis, in the fourth quarter of 2007 compared to the fourth quarter of 2006. But a comparison of statistics from both full years, using the population estimates favored by NOPD, shows that violent crime has increased substantially.
Further, per-capita crime statistics for both of the past two years represent a substantial jump from per-capita crime rates before Katrina, the figures show.
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