As the city's murder rate escalates, the NOPD is "bleeding police officers," states the new Police Foundation study.
Indeed, the most dramatic account of the study's findings on why (in the Foundation's words) NOPD is "bleeding police officers" is found in the summary that top Foundation executives authored with help from a local public relations firm. "New Orleans is facing a crisis: our police force is shrinking at the same time that our city has recaptured the distinguished title of 'murder capital' of the United States among major cities," the Foundation stated. "We now have only about 1500 officers actually engaged in police work, down from 1700 three years ago. Not surprisingly, the reduction in police strength has been accompanied by steep increases in the number of murders. A New Orleanian is now seven times more likely to be murdered than a New Yorker.