city government

Council takes up school bus oversight, victims’ rights, property tax relief

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The City Council on Thursday approved an ordinance to create a uniform regulatory framework for school buses, adopted a resolution urging Orleans Parish criminal justice entities to cease the practice of jailing victims to compel them to testify, received a presentation and CPR demonstration from the American Heart Association in celebration of Heart Month, and adopted a resolution supporting legislative initiatives to create financial relief options for longtime property owners. Additionally, the Council deferred action on a measure concerning Entergy’s use of paid actors in connection with the approval of the New Orleans Power Station and withdrew Ordinance No. 32,523 regarding possible updates to the City’s Alcohol Beverage Outlet ordinance. School bus oversight
The council unanimously passed an ordinance to define school buses and create a category of permits, or Certificate of Public Necessity, in an effort to create a uniform regulatory and inspection framework for school buses citywide. District C Councilwoman Kristin Palmer, who heads the and Transportation Committee, stated that for the 2018-19 school year, New Orleans was using more than 60 third-party transportation operators, which makes regulation challenging — placing New Orleans children at risk as a result.

The ordinance approved by the Council on Feb.

public safety

Big Freedia helps Project NOLA install first gunshot-detection camera in Central City

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The city’s first gunshot-detection crime camera was installed last week on Martin Luther King Boulevard, Project NOLA reported. Sponsored by bounce music star Big Freedia, it was installed one year after Freedia’s younger brother Adam Ross was killed in a Central City shooting. Complementing Project NOLA’s network of over 2,500 crime cameras in New Orleans, the new gunshot-detecting crime cameras will allow Project NOLA staff to more quickly alert the NOPD to active gunfire, identify gunmen and provide life-saving real-time supplemental information to responding units. The city’s first was installed near the spot where Adam Ross lost his life. Developed in 2011 to help reduce crime by increasing police efficiency, the Project NOLA nonprofit community-based crime camera program helped the NOPD reduce the murder rate in New Orleans to a level unseen since 1971, said Bryan Lagarde, executive director of Project NOLA.

public safety

NOPD Second District cancels February NONPACC meeting

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The NOPD Second District has canceled its February monthly NONPACC meeting, originally scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 29, so that the district may prepare for Mardi Gras enforcement. The next scheduled NONPACC meeting will take place on Tuesday, March 19, at 6:30 p.m. at the Second District station, located at 3401 Broadway St. The public is invited to attend. New Orleans Neighborhood Police Anti-Crime Council meetings, or NONPACC, occur monthly and are attended by the district commander and other district personnel.

city government

Shaun Ferguson, veteran of Uptown policing, chosen as new NOPD Superintendent

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Commander Shaun Ferguson — who spent much of his 21-year-career in the New Orleans Police Department in leadership roles in Uptown districts — is Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s choice to be the department’s next chief. Ferguson’s career includes numerous periods in the NOPD Second District, which spans from Napoleon Avenue upriver through the Audubon, university, Carrollton, Broadmoor and Hollygrove neighborhoods. As a sergeant, Ferguson supervised the district’s violent-crime investigations after Hurricane Katrina, then left to become a supervisor in the city’s Homicide Division. He then returned Uptown in 2012 as a lieutenant serving as second-in-command to Commander Paul Noel over all investigations in the Second District during a period that saw armed robberies plummet to their lowest number in a decade. In 2014, Ferguson’s success was acknowledged with a promotion to leadership of his own district, the Westbank-based NOPD Fourth District.

public safety

State Street apartment house burns in overnight fire; firefighter injured, 5 residents displaced

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Five people were displaced after a three-apartment house on State Street caught fire overnight, New Orleans firefighters said Thursday morning. A firefighter was injured while battling the blaze. The fire at 2433-35 State Street was reported at 12:55 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 10, and the first firefighters arrived six minutes later to find a two-story masonry veneer multi-unit residence fully engulfed in heavy smoke and fire. The fire had already spread to the second floor of the residence.

city government

NOPD Chief Harrison to leave New Orleans for job as Baltimore police commissioner

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Superintendent Michael Harrison is leaving the New Orleans Police Department after accepting a job as police commissioner in the city of Baltimore, he announced Tuesday morning. Harrison has led the NOPD since former Mayor Mitch Landrieu named his as the successor to former Chief Ronal Serpas in 2014. Unlike Serpas — whose leadership coincided with the implementation of widespread and sometimes-unpopular reforms from the federal consent decree — Harrison remained fairly well-liked by officers and uncontroversial in public. Likewise, Harrison’s position leading the NOPD never became an issue during the most recent mayoral campaign — again, unlike during Landrieu’s election, which included a high-profile search leading to Serpas’ appointment. In fact, former City Councilwoman Susan Guidry, chair of the council’s criminal-justice committee, urged incoming Mayor LaToya Cantrell to keep Harrison in office, noting that the NOPD was far more stable under his leadership than that of other city departments that needed more immediate attention.

public safety

Runaway juvenile reported in Central City

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The NOPD is seeking assistance in locating a teenage boy reported as a runaway in Central City. On Sunday, Jan. 6, Jeremiah Harris, 16, left his guardian’s residence in the 2500 block of Erato Street without permission. He has not returned and has not been heard from by his guardian since this time. Harris is described as a black male standing about 5’7” and weighing about 130 pounds.

crime

Home invasion reported on South Saratoga, police say

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A South Saratoga Street resident answered a knock at the front door Thursday morning only to be robbed at gunpoint of his cash and credit card, New Orleans police said. The victim, a man in his 60s, was at home in the 3300 block of South Saratoga Street around 9:45 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 3, when a tall man calling himself “Keith” knocked on the door, according to the initial NOPD report. “The victim opened the door and the subject armed with a semi-auto handgun pointed it at the victim and demanded his money. The victim complied,” the report states.

public safety

Man critically injured, store gutted by two-alarm blaze in Irish Channel

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A fire that broke out Thursday night in the Irish Channel left one man critically injured, the New Orleans Fire Department reports. An emergency call at 8:51 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 3, reported a “fire with possible persons trapped” at the corner of Constance and First streets. Dispatched at 8:52 p.m., the first New Orleans Fire Department company arrived at 2372 Constance St. at 8:56 p.m. and found a small corner grocery store already heavily involved.