Victory
More than three years ago, Citizen Crime Watch was created to advocate for improved public access to 911 calls for service crime data. With heightened public concerns about rising crime after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Police Department was doing a poor job of keeping the public informed about shifting patterns of crime. The calls for service data provide the earliest snapshot of crime within 24 hours. The NOPD was more than just uncooperative. Certain members of the administration were downright nasty.
Mere days after being sworn in as the new NOPD police chief, Ronal Serpas announced that crime data will now be released every 24 hours, instead of weeks after crime occurs (as was the policy under chief Warren Riley):
In addition to opening the weekly COMSTAT meetings, Mayor Landrieu and Chief Serpas today announced that the NOPD and city will be speeding up its process for delivering raw data for posting on public crime maps, using “Calls for Service” data. With the changes, the oldest data on the maps will be 50-52 hours old and newest data approximately 24 hours old.
Neighborhoods, academics, and non-profit organizations have all desired crime data to support research and neighborhood revitalization.
What a difference a new administration can make!
