By James Finn
Source The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick has earned plaudits over the year she's served as New Orleans' top cop for the precipitous drop in violent crime and her day-to-day handling of the New Orleans Police Department.
A pair of mass shootings at a second line on Sunday, which left at least 10 people injured and two killed at separate locations in St. Roch, marks one of the first major tests of Kirkpatrick's leadership.
Kirkpatrick on Monday offered an update to New Orleans residents on the shooting. During a news conference, she described a heavy law enforcement presence at the event, noting that there were 100 NOPD officers working the parade route "and yet the tragedy still occurred."
"We are actively working this case. We do have leads. And we will find the perpetrators," she said. "They will be held accountable."
Police brass and City Council members Eugene Green and Oliver Thomas were in attendance and also addressed the media. Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who was attending an international climate conference in Rio de Janiero over the weekend, has not commented publicly on the shootings, though Kirkpatrick confirmed on Monday that she briefed the mayor on the shooting after it happened.
City Hall issued a news release noting that the " City of New Orleans is saddened by the loss of life."
Thought violent crime has tumbled in recent months, local leaders said they wanted to know more about the circumstances regarding the shooting, including City Council member Freddie King III, who discussed the tragedy during a radio interview on Monday.
"There are a lot of questions that I have, that my colleagues have, to find out exactly what happened, how prepared was law enforcement, just who was put in place to make sure this was a safe environment," said King on WWL Radio.
Kirkpatrick arrived in New Orleans in 2023 to lead a department beset by deep hiring woes at the same time the city was mired in a surge of violent crime following the COVID-19 pandemic. She brought more than 30 years of policing experience, including 20 as a chief, according to an NOPD biography.
In the eyes of many city politicians, activists, crime analysts and voters, she has performed well. She was the only public official in Orleans Parish to notch a job approval rating above 50%, according to the University of New Orleans Quality of Life Survey issued last month.
Crime in New Orleans began to dip a few months before Cantrell nominated Kirkpatrick to lead the police department — a surprise deviation from an internal finalist, interim chief Michelle Woodfork. But the city's reduction in carjackings, murders and some other types of crime has been particularly pronounced over her tenure.
Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican who has long criticized New Orleans' handling of violent criminals and pushed a slew of tough-on-crime bills this year, has sought to take some credit for the reduction after adding more state police officers to the city. At the same time, the diminutive Kirkpatrick earned the admiration of neighborhood activists and some elected officials by accepting criticism of the department's record in stride and, in some cases, issuing apologies.
The department has made strides on its handling of the NOPD consent decree under Kirkpatrick, said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, a non-profit watchdog group.
Goyeneche also praised Kirkpatrick's handling of a decision by Cantrell to halt promotions at the department. And she has excelled at collaborating with Louisiana State Police deployed at Landry's direction, Goyeneche said Monday.
"This job was not a learning experience for her," Goyeneche said. "This job was her being able to hit the ground and apply everything that she has learned at her previous stops."
He noted that the NOPD had stationed dozens of officers at Sunday's second line and said that because the shootings were targeted, there was likely little the agency could have done to prevent them beforehand.
Sunday's shooting was hardly the first instance of high-profile violence Kirkpatrick has had to respond to as chief. In April, a woman was killed in the crossfire of a mass shooting at the Republic nightclub in the Warehouse District.
But because of the scale of the violence on Sunday, and the fact the day's shootings appeared to be targeted, scrutiny of the NOPD's ability to solve them will likely be high in the weeks ahead, Goyeneche said.
King, the City Council member, questioned whether the city should hold second lines on the same day as Saints home games. He said he wanted to know more about how the simultaneous events would have affected police staffing.
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