NOPD Chief Ronal Serpas speaks at a forum on crime at Touro Synagogue in mid-January.
The greatest weapon the New Orleans Police Department has in the fight against crime is civic engagement and neighborhood organization, New Orleans Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas told a group of young professionals Monday evening.
“When you use your neighborhood and expect behavior of yourself and others, criminals will find somewhere else to go,” Serpas said at a forum hosted by EngageNOLA, a young professionals’ organization. “When you blink, they win. If you don’t blink, they will find someplace else to go.”
Speaking before a packed meeting room at the Columns Hotel on St. Charles Avenue, Serpas gave a brief overview of progress within the department in rooting out corruption, upgrading technology and instituting modern arrest policies before opening the floor to a wide range questions.
Serpas described officers’ difficulty distinguishing the mentally ill from actual criminals among street populations, his department’s unwillingness to get involved in illegal-immigration enforcement, new discretion for officers on low-level offenses and arrest warrants for minor crimes, animal cruelty, evidence collection and other issues.
But the message he returned to time and again was that, despite the high numbers, murders in New Orleans are generally just like those elsewhere, overwhelmingly committed by people angry with other people they know. To drive those figures down, he said, will take more than just law enforcement.
“Education and economy eliminate crime,” Serpas said. “Arrest and incarceration might reduce it – some.”
To read a full recap of Serpas’ comments to EngageNOLA and the audience’s questions to him, click “Replay” in the box below.
