City Of New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS, LA—Today, Mayor Landrieu, City officials, and criminal justice partners launched the Mayor’s Strategic Command to Reduce Murders and Task Force One, a new murder reduction initiative as part of the SOS NOLA: Saving Our Sons Campaign.

“We are laser-focused on reducing murder in New Orleans. This city-wide effort will marshal resources to target areas that need it the most and where we have the most murders occurring,” said Mayor Mitch Landrieu. “The Strategic Command to Reduce Murders will provide a data-driven, multi-disciplinary, public health-informed approach to murder reduction that prevents and reduces crime in our city.”

Building on the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission, a model that has prompted significant reforms and helped dramatically reduce the city of Milwaukee’s homicide rate since its inception in 2005, the Strategic Command to Reduce Murders will convene murder reviews, support implementation and evaluation of recommendations that come from the reviews, maintain a comprehensive database of murders, nonfatal shootings, and near-fatal domestic violence incidents, and provide technical assistance and capacity-building services to criminal justice and community service professionals.

“The Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission is a proven, replicable model that has the potential to save lives in New Orleans,” said Criminal Justice Commissioner James Carter. “I look forward to getting to work with all of our partners on the toughest issue our City faces.”

The Strategic Command to Reduce Murders will be comprised of several teams:

·         Executive Action Team to Reduce Murders: Key staff from the Landrieu Administration, local and federal law enforcement and criminal justice agencies will meet monthly to present new information, monitor and report on the progress of already implemented steps.

·         Initial Action Team to Reduce Murders: Immediately after a murder occurs, law enforcement representatives will begin to investigate the case and track down those responsible, as well as connect family members who are coping with the aftermath of a violent death to services.

·         Criminal Justice Action Team to Reduce Murders: Law enforcement agency representatives knowledgeable on crime data, policies and programs will focus on open and closed murder cases that took place in the prior month to share data, identify patterns and make recommendations to partner agencies that aid in day to day and long-term work.

·         Community Service Action Team to Reduce Murders: Non-profit community organizations, social service agencies, and faith-based leaders who work on crime and violence prevention will identify issues with service delivery or capacity, identify gaps in existing resources, and make recommendations to improve community-based prevention efforts.

·         Re-Entry Workforce Action Team to Reduce Murders: Business community members will help identify economic and financial challenges and opportunities for residents, particularly ex-offenders.

To complement the Strategic Command to Reduce Murders, Task Force One will be comprised of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies who will share critical tactical information across organizations to better identify and aggressively target, arrest and prosecute violent offenders. Task Force One will meet monthly and upon the special request of the Mayor, and appropriate information from this group will flow to the Strategic Command Executive Team.

Both of these initiatives will initially focus on the three police districts with the most immediate murder problems: Fifth District (Bywater, Upper 9^th Ward, Lower 9^th Ward), Sixth District (Irish Channel, Garden District, Central City), and Seventh District (New Orleans East).

The Strategic Command to Reduce Murders was developed and will be implemented in collaboration with the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) initiative, a customized pilot program created by the Obama Administration to strengthen local capacity and spark economic growth in local communities. New Orleans is one of just six cities chosen for the pilot program this year, which provides the City with interagency coordination and expertise from the federal government.

To facilitate establishment of the Strategic Command to Reduce Murders, training for City and law enforcement personnel on the details of the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission was funded by a U.S. Department of Justice COPS grant. The Innovation Delivery Team, funded by Bloomberg, will also support implementation of the Strategic Command to Reduce Murders and Task Force One.