Violent crime increases in 1st quarter of 2008
Violent crime surges in N.O.
Armed holdups rise sharply in statistics
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
By Laura Maggi
The Times-Picayune
Violent crime jumped almost 20 percent in New Orleans during the first three months of 2008 compared with the same period last year, including a substantial surge in armed robberies, according to crime statistics released Monday by the New Orleans Police Department.
Although the first quarter of 2008, which ended March 31, also showed a 10.4 percent drop in murders compared with last year’s first quarter, that improvement was erased quickly by a spike in killings in April, Superintendent Warren Riley said Monday.
As of May 4, there were 70 killings in New Orleans this year compared with 63 killings by May 4, 2007, an NOPD spokesman said.
“We are doing everything that we can. We have identified a couple (of) areas that recently popped up, and we are addressing them,” said Riley, who briefly addressed questions about the statistics during an event to teach students at McMain High School about the NOPD.
Overall, crime decreased 4 percent in New Orleans in the first quarter of 2008 versus the initial months of 2007. But that decrease can mostly be attributed to drops in property crimes, particularly burglaries and thefts. The nonviolent crimes included in the statistics release decreased by about 9 percent.
In comparison, there was a spike in crimes against people, which rose 19.5 percent compared with last year. The number of armed robberies grew 46 percent and assaults increased by 11.9 percent. The number of rapes almost doubled: 26 rapes in the first quarter of 2008 compared with 14 last year.
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