Louisiana cities top list of murder rates

The Associated Press 10/28/01 2:23 PM

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- New Orleans, working hard to escape the black marks it got as murder capital of the United States in 1994, has hit a setback in new FBI statistics.

For every 100,000 people, 20.4 were victims of murder or manslaughter last year in New Orleans, the highest rate of all 263 reporting cities, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the FBI's 2000 Uniform Crime Report.

Southern cities ranked high on the list. Other Louisiana cities weren't far behind, with the Shreveport/Bossier City area ranking third and Monroe coming in at 21.

"It seems like if Louisiana has to top the chart, it's going to be on a negative chart, and we work really hard to keep that from happening," said Kacee Hargrave, a spokeswoman for the Shreveport Police Department.

The data is based on voluntary reporting to the FBI last year. Some states, such as Kansas and Kentucky, don't have any major cities included in the study. The list is missing other major cities like Atlanta and Indianapolis. Baton Rouge didn't report any statistics, either.

"That would tend to skew things," Hargrave said.

Of the major metro statistical areas reporting in Louisiana, Houma was the safest place to live last year, followed by Lafayette and Lake Charles.

Alexandria had the highest overall crime rate of Louisiana cities reporting in 2000, with more than 6,900 crimes per 100,000 people. The city ranked seventh in the nation. Monroe followed right behind, ranking eighth in the nation. New Orleans was 48th, with 5,817 crimes in every 100,000.

The New Orleans Police Department didn't return calls, and Police Superintendent Richard Pennington previously has declined to discuss crime statistics.

But Pennington has said the city is making inroads in its battle against crime. The city's violent crime rate, pegged to 204 murders last year, has continued to drop since it had more than 400 murders in 1994 and earned the dubious honor of the nation's murder capital.

"While we are in no way declaring victory in the continuing war on crime, we feel we are winning several battles along the way by making a consistent dent in crime," Pennington said last year in response to questions about the crime rate.

Pennington has said murders were on the rise because of increased drug trafficking, and he beefed up narcotics enforcement.

In the 2000 figures on violent crime, New Orleans fell to 23rd nationally with 772.9 crimes for every 100,000 people, while Monroe moved up to 14th. Shreveport/Bossier ranked 27th.

Hargrave said Shreveport has put together a domestic violence task force after having 17 domestic violence murders out of 54 last year. This year, only two people have died in domestic violence incidents, and murders are down 39 percent, she said.

"We can't control people's anger. We can only try to make them stop and think before they act," Hargrave said.

-- Anonymous, October 29, 2001