Panel calling for police, DA to focus on serious crimes
Posted by The Times-Picayune October 01, 2007 9:05PM
By Laura Maggi
Staff writer
While both NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley and District Attorney Eddie Jordan focus their anti-crime rhetoric on the pursuit of violent criminals, a study of the arrests and prosecutions in the first half of 2007 shows that police officers and prosecutors are targeting people who commit lower-level offenses.
–Half of the 15,225 arrests made by the New Orleans Police Department in the second quarter of 2007 were for traffic and municipal offenses, about the same level as during the first three months of the year, according to the analysis by the Metropolitan Crime Commission to be released today.
–Also in the second quarter, which was April through June, the NOPD made 3,197 arrests for more serious offenses, defined as those resulting in a state charge. About 70 percent of those arrests were in felony crimes that can lead to significant jail time.
–A review of cases accepted by the district attorney’s office for the same three-month period shows prosecutors accepted slightly more misdemeanor cases — which seldom result in jail time — than felony cases, the study showed.
The report concludes that both the district attorney’s office and NOPD need to focus their attention on locking up the most serious criminals, particularly since violent crime rose this year.
“The only chance that the criminal justice system has to remove some of the worst offenders is through a violent crime conviction,” said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a nonprofit watchdog group based in New Orleans. “That is the only category of crime that if you are convicted usually results in a jail sentence.”
The Crime Commission began tracking criminal cases in New Orleans in January, finding in an earlier report that the NOPD made more arrests in the first three months of 2007 than during a similar period before Hurricane Katrina, once an adjustment was made for the city’s smaller population.
The number of arrests was up in the second period examined by the commission in 2007, growing from 14,187 arrests made in the first quarter to 15,225 arrests in the second quarter of this year.
Goyeneche called the level of arrests — and the apparent focus on minor violations — troubling, as the practice hasn’t helped stem violent crime. During the six months when police were making all of these arrests, the number of reported rapes, armed robberies and assaults in New Orleans rose, while the murder rate held steady.
Not only are the arrests not helping the NOPD stop violent crimes, they could be harmful, Goyeneche said.
Arresting people who could have received only citations for traffic offenses or breaking municipal ordinances can hurt the NOPD’s relationship with the local community, Goyeneche said, adding that citizens who are arrested for minor violations can end up on a jury or as a witness to a crime, and their own experiences with police might cause them to be skeptical of the prosecution’s case.
Minor arrests take time
The report also noted that it often takes a minimum of one hour for a police officer to bring someone to Central Lock-Up. Every officer who arrests a traffic offender is tied up at the jail instead of being out on the street as a crime deterrent or investigating serious offenses, Goyeneche said.
Riley, who declined through a spokesman to comment for this story, has said he agrees that his officers shouldn’t focus on arresting what he calls “good quality” citizens for minor offenses. An NOPD spokesman defined good citizens as people who are generally law-abiding, a “working man or woman who does not have continued infractions of the law.”
The superintendent in June asked the City Council to allow his officers to issue “second chance” warnings to people they stop and then discover are wanted for minor offenses, such as not paying a fine or showing up for a traffic-related court date. A spokeswoman for Councilman James Carter said the council has asked state Attorney General Charles Foti for an opinion about whether a change in the city ordinance would be proper.
However, the NOPD already had that discretion in the vast majority of the 15,392 traffic and municipal arrests for the first six months of 2007, according to the Crime Commission analysis.
About 5,700 of the arrests were required by law, including 3,764 attachments because people were wanted by the Orleans Parish municipal and traffic courts, often for failing to pay fines. Some 1,309 were domestic violence incidents, and 630 were for driving while intoxicated.
For the rest of the more than 9,600 arrests, the NOPD officers could have issued citations or court summonses, the report concluded.
With the NOPD’s renewed focus on community policing, which involves trying to build better relationships with the people living in crime-ridden neighborhoods, officers have been instructed to focus their time on serious crimes, said Sgt. Joe Narcisse, a department spokesman. This mandate has been communicated by the command staff to the rank and file, he said.
“That does continue to be our focus,” Narcisse said. “But we still live in this city. Everyone must still be lawful. There will be arrests that are unavoidable.”
Misdemeanors prosecuted
The Crime Commission’s report also focused on activity at the district attorney’s office in the second quarter, although the prosecutions evaluated probably would be a different batch of cases than the arrests made during that period. The overall number of cases accepted rose in the second quarter, from 1,813 to 1,964, including a marked increase in acceptance of felony cases.
But the report notes that 51 percent of accepted cases were misdemeanors, which are less serious crimes. And while Jordan’s office improved its acceptance of felony cases in general, they accepted 16 fewer violent felony cases in the second quarter compared with the first three months.
Ralph Brandt, the head of the trials division at the district attorney’s office, said the office is trying to devote resources to convicting violent felons. But they still must prosecute many misdemeanor cases, he said.
“If you are going to tell me we shouldn’t be prosecuting a class of misdemeanors, the solution for that is the MCC or another citizen group have that crime decriminalized,” Brandt said. “It is our job to enforce and prosecute all laws.”
One of the more critical aspects of the Crime Commission’s evaluation of the district attorney’s office was looking at the dismissal rates versus conviction rates. The report noted that out of the 691 cases that were closed in the second quarter, 39 percent were dismissed.
Perhaps more telling, 51 percent of violent felony cases closed between January and June were dismissed. During that time, the DA’s office was able to secure convictions in 12 killings, 11 rapes and 34 robberies. They also dropped 14 homicide cases, eight rapes and 36 robberies.
‘Extraordinarily high’
The report calls the dismissal rates “extraordinarily high,” saying Jordan must find ways to work with the NOPD to reduce the number of cases that are dropped.
Brandt noted that the level of dismissals shrank from the first quarter to the second, saying that some of the older cases — particularly those that date back before Hurricane Katrina — are no longer viable.
“None of us as prosecutors like to dismiss a case, whether it is a crime of violence or non-violent,” Brandt said. “We never like to throw in the towel, but sometimes you are left with no other options.”
Violent crime cases often involve reluctant witnesses and victims. When cases are initially screened, Jordan has a policy to accept many cases even when the victims or witnesses are somewhat hesitant to testify, hoping that the prosecutor will be able to hold the case together, Brandt said. “Oftentimes those cases develop problems as witnesses change their mind as time drags on,” he said.
Brandt added that one thing the report does not reflect is the number of significant jail sentences recently handed down by judges at Criminal District Court when Orleans Parish prosecutors successfully prosecute violent offenders. “We are continuing to strive to make that number go up,” he said.
