Keep pushing reforms to reduce arrests for minor offenses in New Orleans: An editorial NOLA.com
"Advocates for more effective policing in New Orleans have for years been pushing to reduce the number of arrests for traffic violations and other minor, nonviolent offenses -- so that more resources can be focused on violent crime.
New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux is joining that effort with a report that makes important recommendations for the city's criminal justice system. City officials said some of those reforms are already being implemented. But they need to make sure they are effective, and Mr. Quatrevaux should evaluate the results.
Mr. Quatrevaux's office examined arrests patterns for the second half of 2009, the year after the City Council changed the law to give police officers more discretion to use summonses where appropriate.
But Mr. Quatrevaux found that even after those changes, the city's arrest rate was three times the national average for cities of similar size or larger. In addition, a third of arrests were for minor municipal violations or traffic offenses. And more than 14 percent of arrests were on warrants issued by other parishes for minor offenses, including unpaid traffic fines.
That's wasteful. The city spent about $3.2 million housing municipal detainees at the jail in 2009, according to the report. Clearly, there are better crime-fighting uses for that money."
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