Um we're going to switch the schedule around just a little bit and let our criminal court judges go first.

Juvenile judges go second, and we're going to put JJIC last.

Is Matt an attendee of me?

Is Matt an attendee on there?

Yeah.

No, no.

Just Council Harris.

I need to talk with you about the autopilot.

Roll call.

Council Member King.

Here.

Council Member Morell.

Councilmember Harris.

Council Member Green.

Here.

Council Member Hughes.

We have three members.

We have a quorum.

All right.

Thank you, Mr.

Needle.

Welcome everyone to the July twenty ninth, twenty twenty sixth criminal justice committee meeting.

Um, start with an approval of the minutes and make a motion to approve last meeting's minute.

On this June twenty ninth, I am pleased to move for approval of the minutes.

Second by Councilmember Green, all in favor.

All right.

Three eyes, all opposed.

Three eyes, no nays.

The meeting.

The May 11th meeting minutes have been approved.

We're going to jump into number three, Judges.

Item number three.

Y'all can still stay there.

I'm sorry.

Oh, this is your calendar number 35481.

Um amending ordinance 3530 MCS.

This is the operating budget of revenues to deappropriate and transfer funds from the CAO's office, mayor's office, and code enforcement for the demolition of the Gall Manor.

Thank you, Ms.

Cena.

Basically, this and the next voting item is to move monies around to appropriate funds to demolish the Gaul Manor in Algiers.

Any questions from the day?

We have members from Code Enforcement Office and CAO if we have any any questions.

No, but Councilmember King, I want to commend you for staying after this demolition.

Um demolitions help our communities.

They make people feel better when they get rid of that blight, but it also shows that the city, despite the difficulties involved with getting owners to do the right thing, will not let them go forever.

I want to commend you as we vote on this matter for staying with this particular issue.

It's an example of what we should be doing and are doing through code enforcement throughout our city.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Green.

I make a motion to approve.

Second by Councilman Barris, all in favor.

Aye.

Three ayes, all opposed.

No nays.

Motion is approved.

Well, it's approved.

Next, calendar number 35482.

Yeah, this is the um amending ordinance 3530 MCS, the operating budget of expenditures.

So it's the um sister ordinance for your prior ordinance to deappropriate and transfer the funds from the CA's mayors regarding the demolition of the Gaulle Manor.

Any any question, it is any public comment?

No.

Hearing and seeing none, make a motion to approve.

Second, Councilmember Green, all in favor.

This is on the next council meeting agenda.

All right.

Oh, I'm sorry, Councilmember Green.

Before we start.

Go ahead.

Can I have just one minute of personal privilege?

I'm pleased to serve on the city council, especially these last few years when we've seen such tremendous reductions in crime in our city, especially in terms of violent crime.

As we make these reports today, I know that there are always going to be challenges, but um, Councilman King, I'm pleased that we have an opportunity to hear from our criminal justice partners, but I also want to say an important word.

Congratulations and thank you.

Yesterday's article in the Times Pikachu shows that from other advocates shows that over the last three to four years, we've reduced crime in many areas by 60% or more.

That wouldn't be happening unless there was cooperation going on, and I want to thank those members of the criminal justice community.

I know it can be difficult sometimes to arrest people and put them in certain places where you wish they were doing different things and they were free.

But it's also always important to recognize that with the reduction in crime, that means we have fewer victims, fewer families, fewer individuals who are suffering.

I just want to thank everyone in advance of your presentations for the work that you're doing.

Thank you, Councilman Green.

I'm gonna echo that.

Now on everyone's mind, um we're making national news for the this the rise in crime and through partnership with the PA's office, criminal court judges, police, NOPD, Sheriff's Office.

Um, crime has really been not on anyone's radar, and that's a good thing.

So we want to knock on wood and keep it that keep it that way, um, so we can focus on other things opposed to keeping everyone safe.

So with that, we will turn it over to Judge Criminal Court, Chief Judge, Judge Warner Lombard, for the quarterly representation.

Good morning, and thank you all for having us here, Councilman.

Uh Council members.

Uh I am Juana Marine Lumbar, Chief Judge and Magistrate Judge of Criminal District Court.

I am here with Shannon Sims and Rob Kasach, the judicial administrators for criminal district court, and I'll let the deputy chief introduce ourselves.

So I'd like to start today by discussing our case management system.

As you are aware, we went live on November 10th.

We are still experiencing growing pains with some of the implementation and the data conversion.

We're also beacon has gone live, and the sheriff will talk to you more about that, but the two systems live together.

We're still having some issues trying to get the systems to work the way we want them to.

All of us, all of the partners are working daily and diligently and constantly in communication on resolving these issues.

As you know, last year, criminal district court held 200, I mean 137 jury trials, 26 were murder trials.

That was 24% of the trials held, criminal trials held statewide in Louisiana.

As of June 23rd, we have already held 63 jury trials this year.

Um the court is still maintaining its specialty courts, which include the domestic violence and mental health court.

I have the misdemeanor domestic violence and mental health courts, Judge Good Douglas has the felony domestic violence court, and uh Judge Marcus DeLarge has the felony mental health court.

We maintain drug courts across multiple sections of court.

Judge Delar still has his re-entry court.

I think the drug court sections are Judge Holmes, Judge Codouglas, and Judge Harris, and I'm missing a judge.

Judge Pittman.

Judge Pittman.

And then uh we also have the rise after release program and the veterans court run by uh Judge Willard, and then misdemeanor monitoring obviously is conducted by magistrate.

Uh the big things that have happened, you are more aware you are very aware of, of course, which is the passage of a number of bills.

The two that I'm talking about mostly tomorrow this morning, well, there's three.

There's one that kind of slipped onto everybody's radar that is going to clog us up even more, which is when if a felony jury, if a defendant elects to go judge trial instead of jury trial, whether in felony or misdemeanor court, then under this new law, that case then has to be realotted to another judge.

Don't I it we did not make the rule, I'm just saying.

So the rule is that if you're in a defendant in a in say Judge Holmes' section, and you choose to go judge trial, Judge Holmes won't be the judge trying your case, then that case has to be then realotted to another section of court, which is just gonna clog us up more because as you know, 217 passed, and part of 217 is that they will be reducing um cutting, is slashing three judges from the criminal district court by the end of the year, which is going, and right now those three judges have approximately 546 cases between them.

So when those three sections are gone, then the remaining nine will have to assume those 546 cases along with their currently existing docket.

The other thing that 217 did, good morning, Houseman.

Um the other thing that 217 did it in conjunction with two fifty-six, as you know, consolidated the clerk's offices and created a consolidated judicial expense fund.

Um we have put the committee together.

The committee it consists of seven sitting judges and two uh retired judges.

We will, if the supreme court hasn't sent you guys the committee list, then Miss Sims will send you the committee list.

Uh but right now, four judges were appointed by the Supreme Court, the rest were appointed by Criminal Court, Civil Court, and First and Second city Court.

So the j the consolidated uh JEF includes first city court, uh first and second city court, civil court, and criminal district court.

Uh we have had our first meeting, the committee has been put together.

But just say, and so we did send a letter to you guys just kind of letting you know the status of that and what that may do to our budget in the next fiscal year.

We are funded through this year.

But we did want to put y'all on notice of that because uh we don't know how to.

Thank you.

And then um, judge, real quick, I think uh sorry, interrupting your honor.

I was not.

I want to hit on that issue.

Uh what I find tremendously interesting, because I understand that that has been a concern voiced by the clerk of Orleans court, and as you're aware, because you're aware of the judiciary across the state of Louisiana, in every other parish, civil court funds criminal court.

Correct.

So I think that, and I've talked to my former colleagues in the legislature.

The intent with the merger of the clerks was that, because it was said repeatedly at every occasion, we want Orleans to be like everybody else, that the funding mechanism to make you whole, and I would say go beyond just making you whole.

I think that there are a tremendous amount of infrastructure upgrades that are needed.

There are uh personnel staffing that courts need to be revisited.

The whole idea was that when this consolidation of the clerks occurred, it was supposed to end rich dad poor dad.

Because right now you guys are the poor dad and civil court's the rich dad, and the civil clerk is sitting on tens of millions of dollars of surplus funding.

So I know that we are working with the legislative order.

I know that as of right now, based upon his representations, our existing commitment, which we are one of the few parishes that funds criminal court separately, that is going to stay in place for now, but it is extremely likely we're gonna have to go back to the legislature potentially to get clarification because if the goal was to make us like everyone else, there's a building right next door, which is sitting on a tremendous amount of money beyond the building fund for the court that could make you whole and not just make you whole, make you what you should be, which versus what you are now as far as funding.

So just want to put that on the record.

I think that the legislature kind of expressed, maybe not as clearly as they should have, that that was the intent, but there is a way to make you whole, which could go well beyond what you've seen in the past.

Correct.

Well, I think that was the intent, but I can't speak on the law other than to say that the way it's written right now, 60 percent of uh the funds collected by the clerk's office will go into the J joint JEF.

That's whatever that 60% ends up being is what it ends up being.

Um, and that's why we just kind of have been keeping the city abreast of that situation.

And then on another note, we also have um, we are allowed to do a donation uh to the jury, jury per diem uh from the jury per diem to CASA by jurors, so they the jurors are allowed to do a donation to CASA when they come if if they want to.

That's under the new law.

And I think that covers everything.

The wind retrofits project is still going forward.

It should be completed by early September.

The original completion date was supposed to be May.

Um with all construction projects, you know, they tend to go a little longer.

But that seems to be working.

A lot of the courtrooms have already been ref redone and um most of downstairs.

So okay.

Any questions?

Councilman Green?

Yes, I just it's not really a question, it's a statement.

Um, at a time when, as we celebrate, that's not a good word to use, but we recognize the decreases in crime in our city and the fact that I was citizens of CIFA.

I think it was incredibly irresponsible of the legislature to reduce the number of criminal court judges without some suggestion that doing so is going to help us to continue on the route that we were on right now or to even improve our situation.

So we certainly all stand unified and recognizing that another challenge has been thrown upon our city by the state of Louisiana.

It almost becomes one of those additional unfunded mandates, which are something that continues to affect us on a financial level.

But I just want to say that for the record, I understand it's going to be a difficult challenge.

It's not justified in terms of any numbers that have been presented to us in terms of how it's going to do the most important thing, which has helped to keep our citizens safer.

Just want to say thank you all for your work, and we look forward to working with you in whatever capacity we can to make sure that this change does not result in any turnaround in what we are experiencing now.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Green.

Any online comments, Mr.

Nita?

All right.

Thank you, judges.

You appreciate you for having me.

Juvenile court judges going once.

Juvenile judges going twice.

All right, we're going to move to DA's office.

We voted on it.

All right, is the DA's office here?

DA's office going once.

DA's office going twice.

Arleans Parish Sheriff's Office.

Step on up.

I was like, you want to see?

Sheriff, whenever you're ready to forge your office.

Good morning.

Good morning.

President Morrell, Chairman King, and Council Persons, Maris, and Mr.

Green.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide our first quarterly update since taking office.

Today's presentation highlights where the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office stands today, the progress we've made during our first several weeks, and the strategic investments and partnerships needed to continue strengthening public safety, constitutional operations, and public trust.

Go to second slide.

Before discussing our initiatives, I'd like to begin with a snapshot of where the agency stands today.

These metrics reflect both the size of our operation and the pace of progress we've made in a short period of time.

While we continue to face staffing and budget challenges, we've already made significant progress in security operations, policy development, consent decree compliance, and accountability.

These numbers that you see establish our baseline as we work towards sustained improvement.

Everything we have done since taking office has been guided by one principle, and that's accountability.

Accountability extends beyond our correctional facilities.

It includes fiscal stewardship, constitutional operations, professionalism, transparency, and earning the trust of the community through results.

We inherited an agency facing significant operational, financial, and organizational challenges.

And rather than focusing on blame, our leadership team immediately began identifying risks, stabilizing operations, and planning long-term solutions.

This assessment continues to guide our priorities as we repair the foundation of the Elliott's Parish Sheriff's Office.

Our first responsibility is maintaining a safe and secure correctional environment.

We've strengthened intelligence gathering, expanded contraband searches, partnered with our peers from surrounding parishes, and formed the OPSO Security and Accountability Council to bring together public safety leaders and subject matter experts.

And we're planning a tour the third week of July with this group of experts who have accepted my offer to serve on the Security Council.

This will be the first step in generating actionable recommendations.

And these initiatives are already improving institutional security while reducing risk for deputies, detainees, and visitors.

Our infrastructure.

Many of our facilities require significant capital investments after years of deferred maintenance and neglect.

And if you walk through our jail facility as Mel Moreno did a few weeks ago, you can clearly see the damage and deterioration.

We prioritize repairs that directly impact safety and security, including locking systems, preventive maintenance, perimeter security, and critical infrastructure projects.

We've also initiated a system of rounds to document and report damage.

While progress is underway, continued investments will be necessary to modernize our facilities and protect both staff and detainees.

Fiscal accountability has been one of our highest priorities.

We've implemented strong purchase purchasing controls, begun a comprehensive contract inventory, cut non-essential spending, and initiated plans for a fiscal transparency platform that will allow leadership, policymakers, and eventually the public to better understand how taxpayer dollars are being managed.

We've given our commitment to the council, mayor, and CAO that we will do everything needed to comply with the mandates of the ordinance requiring brass or comparable fiscal management software.

This slide illustrates the difference between the conditions we inherited and the reforms now being implemented.

We've introduced standardized purchasing approvals, improved procurement oversight, strengthened contract management, and increased financial transparency.

These reforms are helping restore confidence while positioning the agency for long-term fiscal stability.

And of course, the consent decree remains one of our most important organizational priorities.

During transition, our team began researching any information related to the consent decree that we could have that we could get our hands on.

We engage the judges, monitors, and parties in the days following the election, and now we have a strong command of the areas that need to be brought into compliance and a strong roadmap to be fully compliant on an expedited timeline.

We're pleased to report that we've already secured updates of substantial compliance in three additional areas, and we've re-established regular engagement with the federal monitors and parties.

Our focus is not on simply achieving compliance but building systems that become part of our organizational culture.

Our strategic focus is a long-term strategy that focuses on two parallel efforts.

First, we are modernizing policies and procedures using nationally recognized best practices for corrections, and second, we're strengthening compliance monitoring so improvements are measurable, transparent, and institutionalized well beyond the life of the consent decree.

In our quarterly scorecard, this scorecard provides a transparent assessment of where each major compliance initiative stands today.

Some initiatives are progressing well while others require additional resources or staffing.

By openly tracking our progress, we create accountability within the organization while giving stakeholders a clear understanding of where continued investment is needed.

Our workforce, people remain our greatest investment.

We've strengthened leadership development, expanded professional training, improved accountability system, and enhance onboarding for new employees.

One of our most significant recent accomplishments was hiring a new human resources officer who has extensive leadership experience from both the public and private sectors.

We are extremely optimistic that this addition will strengthen our recruitment effort, improve employee retention, modernize hiring practices, and help us build a professional workforce our community deserves.

Whether it is facility improvements, technology upgrades, employee development, or compliance initiatives, these investments improve safety, reduce risk, lower long-term costs, and accelerate our progress towards full constitutional compliance.

These are investments that benefit both public safety and taxpayers.

Technology modernization, technology is essential to improving operations and supplementing diminishing manpower.

We're continuing implementation of the Beacon jail management system while working closely with Beacon and the CAO's office to fully integrate remaining features through additional workflow development and staff training.

At the same time, we're reforming our records, our records practices, expanding data tracking and improving our technology infrastructure to support better decision making across the agency.

And on our transparency dashboards, transparency is critical to maintaining public trust.

We're developing public-facing dashboards that will provide timely information on population trends, staffing, training, grievances, policy updates, and critical incidents.

Our goal is to make meaningful information readily available to elected officials in the community we serve.

And our accomplishments to this date, significant work definitely remains to be done, but we've already established a strong foundation from security improvements and financial reform to policy modernization and strengthened partnerships.

We've moved quickly to level out our operations while positioning the agency for long-term growth.

But our current needs are still there.

Many of these improvements cannot be sustained without continued investment.

We respectfully ask for the council's support and restoring at least a porting of the resources cut during the last budget.

We need to be able to retain the existing dedicated staff and recruit new staff to fill vacancies and relive the strain on personnel.

We will soon have to staff phase three, and it's very difficult to compete with other parishes when there's double the work and lower pay.

We also ask you to support by investing in aging infrastructure through the capital budget and ensuring we have adequate resources to successfully complete our consent decree obligations.

These investments will strengthen public safety while reducing long-term operational costs and shield us from any additional liability.

And looking ahead, as we move into the coming year, our focus shifts from stabilization to transformation.

We'll continue hardening security, amending policies, completing beacon implementation, improving recruitment and retention, expanding transparency initiatives, and advancing towards substantial compliance with the consent decree.

Every initiative supports our vision of building one of the nation's leading constitutional correctional agencies.

With every challenge we confront and all the growth on the horizon, the thing that always that's always front of mind for me is the safety and livelihood of the people who make up the OPSO.

The agency is nothing without those who make who make up the agency and help run it.

And this team is fully committed to finding a way to fairly compensate them for their sacrifices.

And I'm happy that we were able to give just a little um gest of what we're doing, but in the coming days, we'll be able to provide what all the things thing by thing what we have accomplished in our first 100 days.

So we thank you for your continued partnership and support.

We appreciate the opportunity to provide this update and welcome any questions from the council regarding our progress priorities and future needs.

Thank you, Sheriff.

We're going to first hear from Councilmember Harris and then Councilmember Green.

Thank you, Sheriff, for being here today.

I can tell you that your presentation is refreshing and moving forward in the spirit of collaboration is something that we all want to do.

So thank you for that.

Um I do uh want to ask you about the LLA and the progress that you are making with them.

Where are we as far as reporting back to the council on fiscal uh controls and what needs to happen there?

Well, we've met um uh with the CA's off CAO's office on where our funding stands and um where we are, and that we would like to move forward and getting um our quarterly tranches of money so we can make sure that we're meeting payroll as well as um getting other um infrastructure projects done.

Um we are still working with the Louisiana legislative auditor.

As a matter of fact, on May 4th, um, after my um inauguration, my first meeting was with the legislative auditor.

So we continue um to work with them to uh promote, of course, um transparency when it comes to our spending and our budget, and so that's where we are with with the legislative auditor.

Okay, and as budget chair, I would love to sit down with you and your team to discuss where you are, your needs, so that we can uh look at how we can help with those.

So let's get that on the book sooner rather than later.

I'm meeting with the other council members on their budget priorities, and I think it's important to meet with you on your budget priorities as well.

Um, one of the things that we talked about last term uh with the prior sheriff is bonding capacity at the sheriff's office.

Is there any insight there about whether or not you have bonding capacity to fill some of these financial needs?

There is still some monies left from the last uh administration with the the bonds that they secured, roughly uh about eight or nine million dollars.

Um, and what we're um planning to do, we've already um started that process is to continue to change the hinges and locks on the doors on the first and second floor of the facility.

We've already had uh the um the same vendor who um uh service the the third and fourth floors come out, do the measurements, and they're gonna get started on that.

We are just in uh the process of move um making um arrangements to move some inmates out to other parishes while that work is done.

Great.

This is what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna have my team reach out to your team to schedule a tour of the facility, including phase three, and then we can sit and talk about your budget needs.

So we'll do that um probably after essence.

So uh look out for uh an email from Bryce in my office.

Absolutely.

And that was the plan to invite each and every council person over for a tour.

So you can see exactly what we're talking about when with we mentioned infrastructure um problems the um taking the stripping off of windows and doors and um different different things and pieces of material inside the facility um making weapons so we're trying to sure shore up those things having someone assigned just to do that to go throughout the facility and see what issues we're having with um removing things from the infrastructure and making weapons and stuff like that because it's a safety um it's a safety hazard and so those are the things that we're looking at um we have a risk management person actually going through every part of the facility so we can change those things but of course it takes funding um to replace uh those things or how we're gonna remedy that and we are definitely looking forward to each and every one of you coming over to see exactly um the problems that we face as far as infrastructure staffing and those things are concerned and even with um phase three definitely um we walked through with the mayor and you know we noted some things that um we that may be issues as far as safety is concerned so we're more than happy to host you um on a tour.

Thank you and again I just want to uh commend you right now I know it's early days on the spirit of collaboration I know that we will continue this as we move forward talking about budget priorities and other operational things that need to happen at the at the jail so thank you all for being here today.

Thank you.

The sheriff the sheriff addressed what question I was going to ask um based on what councilmember Harris asked but basically after this weekend's incident for example with regards to the um weaponry um you've explained already that you're doing a comprehensive look at some of the safety concerns within the um within the facility to do what we can to reduce the likelihood of people being able to bring in weapons and create weapons because of course there are a lot of folks there whose family members are concerned whenever they hear that a stabbing incident has taken place or that someone has been beaten so you did address it unless you like to add to it and let the public know those who um have family members for example who may be incarcerated um what's being done to make the facility safer so that they can feel more comfortable.

Right and and you know the the only way that we're going to um be able to bring down um assaults inside of the jail is to hire more staff and and of course look at the infrastructure um of the jail again they're they're pulling off door strippings and um around window seals um and creating weapons um even a petition um a metal petition they were taking metal off that we had them all removed uh from inside um some some of the areas on the pods and so but it takes um uh resources and money um to be uh uh more um detailed about it to fix these things and right now um our priority definitely is to shore up this building and the way we have been doing that of course is we're going to continue changing those locks on the first and second floor change both uh both of those floors out and then of course put materials that can't cannot be peeled away from a door seal or a window seal that they can use um to make homemade weapons and so with supervision and of course um suring up our infrastructure that is the way to stop um those types of incidents from happening and then regular um we're doing regular shakedowns we're actually doing the work already you know um searching those cells um uh occasionally not um just doing them randomly um when unannounced and we're finding weapons and of course in each of those incidents um we have charge um put additional charges on those who are involved in those incidents.

We haven't done it um with this last one that happened um on yesterday because they're still doing an investigation, but we plan to charge someone um in that incident also.

So holding those inmates accountable when they do um make homemade weapons and use them inside this facility, we're still working on that.

Okay, thank you.

Let's talk about numbers for a second.

And I didn't find on my phone checking the council's agenda the number that I ask about all the time or often.

How many inmates are awaiting transfer to the state based on the completion of their low um whatever the requirements are local?

Roughly we have the last time I checked, which was last week, we have about 48 that need to be transferred to the Department of Corrections.

Can you comment on that, or do you wish for me to comment and say what is going on with the state who's always doing something to that um end?

But also it's important to recognize and I want the public to understand at least four inmates were recently transferred back to the Orleans Justice Center because there's no room at Angola, or is that correct, or there's some other facts that people need to know?

Because if you have 48 who are waiting transfer, and then you're transferring four more in, I'm a little bit worried that at the end of the day, of course, it's easy because it's a lot of city expenses, but that the state isn't doing the job that it's supposed to be doing.

Can you comment on that?

Sure.

Um we had four inmates transferred back to our custody.

Um, it was four inmates that were involved in the May 16th escape.

And um it was because of uh housing um issues um with the Department of Corrections.

They just don't have enough beds, and so they needed to be transferred back to our custody because they are still awaiting trial.

There's still some pretrial um things with them, and so it was um hard on their staffing, um, hard to transport those um inmates to and from Angola every time they had a court appearance, and so they asked that we um take them back, and we did.

And um, of course, they are in a secured area um of the jail.

And you asked about uh the how many how many people that we have that are um DOC inmates that we are still housing.

It's a process, right?

Once a person is sentenced, have to wait for their time to be calculated from the Department of Corrections, that's a whole process.

And once that is done, then they are ready to be transported to another facility, a DOC facility, and we have to wait on the Department of Corrections to come and pick those inmates up.

But it's done weekly.

They come and get um uh inmates weekly, at least um about we have actually five to date that are being um transported uh to the department of corrections.

So it's a process, and that's the reason why we still have about 48 inmates um in our custody that are um with the department of corrections.

I haven't been hesitant to push back on the state, especially since the state wants to get involved with reducing our judiciary and do other things to take away money as was recently done.

But there are some challenges in our city that are many times created by the state.

48 inmates is significant investment by a city that right now is experiencing a budget crisis.

I know that we have to um and we want to honor um and we want to recognize that it's a human rights issue and that we want people to be treated fairly, um, and I understand how the system works.

I think what I'm trying to get across is especially to anybody who's listening on a state level, just stop.

Stop bashing the city of New Orleans when you have so many shortcomings on a state level.

Whether they are coming to pick someone up every week or not, the fact is that there are 48 people who are housed in OJC at the expense of local taxpayers, especially who should be elsewhere.

The system that results in only five being transferred, I understand the difficulties, and I want to make it clear.

I'm being a little bit rhetorical because it's been going on forever, but stop the bashing of the City of New Orleans as if we don't do anything right when there's so many issues on the state level that need to be addressed.

But I appreciate your presentation, and I hope that we can find more common ground with the state that doesn't re result in so many recriminations and accusations relative to what we're doing here.

And I just want to add, you know, um, across the board, um, staffing is an issue, whether it's um the Department of Corrections, whether it's um Orleans Parish, um, with law enforcement, there of course is staffing issues um, you know, citywide, statewide, um, across the country.

And so um with those issues, um, that's uh part of their um reasoning, you know, staffing to actually come and pick up the inmates and also housing, and we're all having that issue, and I think um we're gonna have a growing issue um when there's a reduction in uh the judges, you know, it's going to uh make uh the case caseloads go a little go a little slower, so we may be housing more um people for a longer time.

So that is an issue for us.

So having a relationship um with the Department of Corrections, we are trying to work with them and and having a um a really positive um relationship so they'll you know understand that we need these inmates move as quickly as possible because of course they're having housing issues and staffing issues just as we are.

Um, but trying to work with them uh to move those um inmates a little bit better.

We're having good conversations with them, so I'm sure um that uh we're gonna be able to move a little more swiftly more quickly um with their cooperation.

It's a big financial issue relative to the city.

Yes, and with DLC inmates, uh I think the rate for in that we get for an inmate um a day is twenty-six dollars or twenty-nine dollars an hour something in in that area, which is just a drop in a bucket in order to be able to house um uh an inmate.

You know, just uh off the top of my head, I know to house a female inmate um in OJC is in excess of $200 a day.

So that $26 or $29 an hour that um you get for housing a DOC inmate is just really a drop in a bucket, and it does put you know a strain on us.

Okay.

Let me end with a couple of positive things because I could bash the state as I will all year, especially with us in the middle of our financial crisis.

I want to thank you for your outreach to be a participant with um the victims, people who have suffered um as who are victims of crime and you're willing to your willingness to host again the monthly meetings um of the voices of the victims of crime.

And I also want to um commend those who are running the Travis Hill School for the recent graduations.

Um it was good to see those young, happen to be all young men, those young men who are feeling a little bit better about their future in society because they had earned that degree.

And I want to encourage those who are watching and those who are familiar, family members, if you have someone who's incarcerated, encourage them to look at the value of pursuing education while they're there and pursuing that social aspect that results in your that results from your meeting with others such as instructors and the like.

It's a valuable program.

I had a chance to talk to one young person, one young person, I don't want to use his name, who is definitely going to be a force in this city.

You know what I'm talking about.

So I mean it's it's such such potential there.

I just want to encourage those who know someone to participate with the Travis Hill School and pursue that educational opportunity.

Yes, and we're we're um committed to uh even implementing even more positive programming through um clinical programs through uh um re-entry programs.

We are in the we've hired someone who's amazing looking at all uh evidence-based programs, um whether it be a clinical program, whether it be um just a re-entry program, that we can actually see results um and actually um help people, you know, um while they're there and also while they're moving out and and to back into society.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, Councilman McGreen.

I want to follow with the questions Consumer Green had about the uh population.

So you said there's 48 current DOC inmates and four more were transferred back to us.

That I um they uh those were the four um young men that were part of a group of the uh of that 10 that um escaped in uh last year.

So they were all being housed at Angola um after they were captured last year.

And those four um were transfer transferred back to uh OJC because of um staffing and also um uh housing uh constraints at at DOC.

So would that be 48 plus four or that four is part of the forty-eight?

They're they're not um DOC inmates currently.

They are still pretrial, those four.

Um but the forty-eight, and that's give or take a few because um that number was from last week, um, so it may be um less, a little just a little bit less, but I know this week um five are slated to leave.

So we probably down closer to 40 um housing 40 DOC inmates.

Okay, and then roughly 200 for a female inmate.

So I'm gonna just use 40 times 200.

That's $8,000 times uh four.

It's four months, four weeks out to months.

So it would take this cost of city thirty-two thousand dollars to house the state inmates.

Basically, basically.

If you do the math, yeah.

I'm not a math expert, but I'm either so almost four hundred thousand dollars.

And we're sitting in the departments already financially struggling.

This the city, the state is putting almost a four hundred thousand dollar uh additional burden on us.

And going back to what Council McGreen said, you you you cut the DA's budget, you cut the number of criminal court judges.

Um it just seems like everything that can be done to put up more of a strain on our criminal justice system is being done, and then the fingers being pointed at us saying, Why aren't you doing enough?

But when you tie a city's hands, they could do just so much.

They can think and do so much.

Um I want to think I just want to put that out for the rec on the record for the public.

Want to thank you, Sheriff, for the the work you and your staff are doing.

It's not easy.

You have a lot of uh hurdles to overcome.

We all do, but we're doing the best we can with doing together.

So I just want to publicly thank you and your staff.

Um, uh Ms.

Neil, any public comments?

All right.

I don't have any public comments for agenda item four letter.

And can I just add one thing, one more thing what you said about um uh the housing those inmates?

What we have done or what we are doing to try to remedy um it as far as population is concerned, and uh of course also um funding it is um asking um uh our partner uh sheriff's office um to take some of to house some of those DOC inmates um for us.

And uh there are several who um do house DOC inmates and they are willing to take some, not all, but of course they at times too have um uh population issues um and staffing issues too and can't take them, but there are times where we're able to trans um transfer those uh DOC inmates um who are waiting DOC to actually house them um to transfer them to different uh sheriff's departments and they house them and they receive the funds um that uh are given by DOC.

So that's our way of trying to keep our population down and also not um having to uh fund uh those particular uh inmates.

Thank you, Sheriff.

One last thing.

So I just did a quick math again.

So it's 200 to to house a uh inmate, a female inmate.

So 200 times 365 is 73,000.

So it costs 73,000 to house one person, and I don't know many many uh in-state college tuitions, that's $73,000.

So it uh not you, but it seems that more, not it seems it's it's obvious more is being invested in criminalizing people and keeping people in jail than actually in helping people.

I don't know many people that make seven three thousand dollars a year.

Um be spending seven, three thousand dollars per person to keep them in jail.

And and that's just um that's the cost, but that's not what is actually you know being paid by the state.

It's uh it's a very, very small amount, and that's that's statewide.

Councilman, Councilman Harris and Councilmember Green.

Yeah, uh to that point.

Uh Councilmember King, as we know, House Bill 211 passed, which criminalizes homeless being sleeping on the street.

And so you think of seventy-three thousand dollars to incarcerate someone for being unhoused versus putting them in housing, which costs about $15,000 to $20,000.

Um we got no additional money from the state to criminalize these people or to incarcerate them.

And they're cutting our money for housing as well.

And so you think about the cost again to criminalize something that is not necessarily necessarily your fault is uh maybe the fault of your circumstances, you're losing housing.

Seventy-three thousand dollars per person to incarcerate them versus fifteen to twenty thousand dollars to give them housing.

Um there's a financial problem there that logically makes zero sense.

Um and so I just want to point that out and be on the record saying that we should be housing people who are in the house, not criminalizing them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman Green.

Sheriff, I um why would a why would a surrounding parish take one of the inmates who should be in the um department of corrections system when they only get paid $26 a day and it costs a hundred dollars a day.

Do they get an additional supplement?

Several um uh local sheriff's departments actually house um DOC inmates.

They do.

We elected not to.

We don't house them because of course it would increase our population.

Um, of course, it's cost saving for us if we don't um uh uh house them.

And so we this parish doesn't um do it, but there are other smaller parishes in the surrounding areas who do.

Um maybe it's worth it to them um the twenty-six or twenty-nine dollars uh a day that they get for uh each inmate, but for cost saving measures for um uh ourselves in the city and also to keep our population down, we do not house um DOC inmates.

Thank you.

I put that out there so folks would know because I'm gonna get a text message back saying basically why don't we just send everybody to surrounding parishes, for example.

That would be that's why I anticipate those, that's why I have it's easier said than done.

Like I said, they have the same challenges we do.

You know, um the number of beds uh um population issues and also staffing um is an issue in in every part of the state, and so um they that's why it's not that easy.

If it was that easy, we could just transport them all out to to different um parishes that actually house DLC inmates, but it's not that easy all the time.

Yes, one last thing, Sheriff.

If anybody's listening, it's approximately thirty-two thousand dollars uh for in-state tuition for uh LSU.

I know.

It costs more than double to uh house uh inmate.

That's that's uh food for thought.

All right, thank you.

All great points.

And and I understand that this definitely creates a challenge, not for just um the sheriff's office, but for the city.

I I I totally understand, but this um currently uh is the hand that we're dealt in uh what we're also um it's a challenge for us.

So of course we're being in partnership with with the city and the mayor's administration.

We're trying to do everything that we can um to not be a burden uh on the city.

And so um we're just challenged with it and we're trying to figure out the best way that we can to be good partners.

Thank you.

All right, um, any comments?

I don't I don't have any public comment calls for sheriff um Woodford.

Thank you, Sheriff.

Up next we're gonna go back to our criminal court judges, criminal.

Sorry, juvenile juvenile court judges.

Judge Bates wouldn't have you ready, just introduce yourself.

Floor is yours.

Hi, good morning.

All right, good morning.

We would like to thank you all for the opportunity to present.

I am Candace Bates Anderson, Chief Judge of Orleans Paris Juvenile Court, and we are here today.

All right.

So we're not going to work on the start with the introduction, then you get the button as we move after you get the introduction.

Is everybody with the business?

All right, so members of the committee.

Good morning.

On behalf of the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court, I want to thank you for the opportunity to participate in today's meeting.

Chief Judge Candace Anderson, Judge Renard Durensburg, and I, Judge Clint Smith, appreciate the Commission's commitment to strengthening our criminal and juvenile justice system through collaboration, transparency, and shared accountability.

Our work extends beyond simply adjudicating cases.

It includes protecting the public, ensuring due process, supporting victims, promoting rehabilitation, and connecting youth and families with services that reduce recidivism and improve long-term outcomes.

No single agency can overcome these challenges individually.

Achieving meaningful progress relies on a robust collaboration among the judiciary, law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys, service providers, school and local governments, and you.

We are also going to highlight juvenile arrest records for 2024-2025 and year-to-date through June 2026.

Our data demonstrates that chronic truancy remains one of the most significant factors contributing to juvenile arrests in the City of New Orleans.

Although overall juvenile arrests have declined during the past three years, arrests occurring during school hours now account for approximately 20% of all juvenile arrests.

This trend highlights an important public safety concern.

While fewer youth are entering the juvenile justice system overall, a growing proportion of those who do are disengaged from school during the instructional day.

Recognizing that school attendance is both an educational issue and a public safety priority, the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court has developed a collaborative data-driven strategy to address chronic absenteeism before it escalates into delinquent behavior.

Working in partnership with the Louisiana Department of Education's Power of Presence Initiative, the Orleans Parish School Board, the Louisiana Supreme Court, and the New Orleans District Attorney's Office, and Credible Messenger and other organizations, and numerous community partners, we are building a coordinated response that addresses the underlying causes of truancy.

We're also expanding our collaboration with the City of New Orleans Department of Health to recognize chronic absenteeism as both a public health and public safety concern, requiring early intervention.

At the center of this effort is the student engagement and attendance team, SEET.

The CET program is a proactive public safety intervention rather than simply an educational initiative.

Its purpose is to identify youth at the greatest risk of chronic absenteeism and intervene before truancy progresses to delinquent behavior or deeper involvement in the juvenile justice system.

Additionally, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court currently has 35 outstanding signed and unexecuted warrants for juvenile arrests, which represent the largest number of open-item cases in the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court.

We believe that continued collaboration and targeted intervention will continue to result in public safety and increased confidence in the juvenile justice system.

Nope.

Okay.

All right, okay.

Also, we are addressing expungement day.

So Orleans Parish Juvenile Court is hosting what we call an expungement day, which will be on August 1st of 2026.

This expungement day is in collaboration with Louisiana Center for Children's Rights, the District Attorney's Office, as well as community partners.

Expungements play a critical critical role in the juvenile justice system by allowing eligible youth to move forward without long-term consequences of a juvenile record.

Ensuring that eligible youth in their families understand the expungement process can reduce recidivism, improve long-term outcomes, and strengthen public safety by supporting successful rehabilitation and reducing barriers to opportunities.

Expungements provide an incentive for juveniles to successfully complete court ordered requirements, remain law-abiding, and demonstrate rehabilitation.

Promoting awareness of juvenile expungement eligibility is an important component of community outreach and juvenile justice reform.

We are planning this event to take place alongside with our juvenile justice awareness back to school bash.

OPJC will host a juvenile justice back to school bash on August 1st of 2026.

It is open to all families in the community.

The court, in conjunction with community partners, will be sponsoring the Health Hoops and Hope Back to School Bash from 10 a.m.

to 2 p.m.

at 1100 Milton Street.

This event is aimed to ensure that youth have access to essential school supplies and access to community resources to begin the school year prepared for success.

From a juvenile crime prevention perspective, back to school events foster positive engagement between families and community organizations.

Building these relationships create opportunities to connect youth and their families with community partners, recreational activities, and other supportive services.

Additionally, providing school supplies and community support can ease financial burdens on many of our families and allow youth to begin the school year with the tools that they need to succeed.

Investing in youth through back-to-school events demonstrates a commitment to prevention by encouraging educational success and reducing risk factors associated with juvenile delinquency.

Orleans Parish Juvenile Court also hosts an initiative in which we provide prime dresses for young ladies that are seeking an opportunity to attend their dances.

So we have also worked with community partners to begin that process because we know it's never too early to start preparing for the school dance.

We also have OPJC's Closet, which is another another initiative that was started by Orleans Paris Juvenile Court, which collects slightly used and slightly worn clothing as well as tennis shoes and other items, dress clothing, so that children can have an opportunity to have clothing that helps them represent who they are when they are coming to court, no matter what their financial burden might be.

Our next set of slides will also address our staff vacancies.

The court understands that the city's budget reduction has necess has made it necessary for temporary vacancies.

However, prolonged understanding will continue to place additional demands on existing personnel, increase workloads in the long term, can reduce the court's ability to meet operational objectives.

As you can see, our judicial administrator is not here today because she also has to wear several hats.

Our staff and our security gate, the security gate was initially of service beginning December of 2025.

That has become an ongoing issue with the court of our ability not to have security.

In the last few months, the gate has been restored to operate, but continues to malfunction.

Providing secure parking for the judges and court staff is an important component of workplace safety and the overall security of court operations.

We appreciate the work that has been done to date, but we'll appreciate a permanent solution to this ongoing problem.

That would conclude the presentation of Orleans Paris Juvenile Court, and we are here for any additional questions, concerns, or community comments.

Thank you very much.

I would also just like to add just one part.

That's okay.

We'll we'll leave that for September.

Thank you.

Councilman the Harris Barbara, Councilman McGreen.

Here are you working with on the staff security gate issue, property management.

Sorry, I have a cold.

Okay, and they have been helpful, but unfortunately, I think it's one era after another.

I just think we probably need a new gate.

We've done the battery, and then we had the last um, it's just always something with the gate.

So it's more non-operational, but they have been there, they have worked on it.

Um, I think they keep trying to fix pieces and parts of it.

Um, so they have worked with us.

Okay, thank you.

That's all I have for y'all.

Thank you.

Councilman McGreen, can you discuss challenges created by this last legislative session?

Where should we begin?

Um, well, I believe that at this point we're still really waiting to see the outcome of um uh some of the effect of the last legislative session.

Um, I think that you can see from the numbers that have provided how important it is to have juvenile court judges that are able to do this work.

Um, I think we are very aware of some of the decrease of crime in our community, um, especially as it relates to some of the juveniles, and we believe wholeheartedly that's based on the work that we're doing uh at the court.

Um, I think that we see a lot of kids that uh fortunately we don't have the opportunity to see again because our one and done method really does work.

But I think it's very important that when we do have that method, that it's important that they have an opportunity to come in front of a judge.

Uh, currently, right now, as you all are aware, we all have court dockets where while we're not there, we're still working with partners that are working with diversion and working with other opportunities for our children to move quickly through this system.

But if there's not a judge, then that could clog those opportunities up.

And so a lot of our kids, as you know, Orleans Paris Juvenile Court children have certain timelines in which they have to be seen by a judge.

Um, those timelines, while some of them have been changed by some of the legislation, um, there are some longer periods of where um you have the opportunity to um petition a matter.

Um, you have some additional time that has been created through legislation, um, in which you have to file a crime of violence.

But even with those time delays or those time changes, it's still very important that children's uh rights are preserved and they have an opportunity to come in front of a judge.

So um we're waiting to see what those challenges will prove or how that how we will handle those.

Um, but we are certainly committed to doing the job that we were elected to do, and we think it's very important that we're able to do it with the judges that are a part of Orleans Paris Juvenile Court.

Okay.

I hope that we can get more of the young persons to participate in the education.

I mean, it's a good program, Travis Hill.

I would learn to the recent graduation.

I just want to encourage um someone who may have a loved one or family or friend who is incarcerated to just take advantage of that opportunity.

Okay.

Well, the good thing is with the kids over at um, and I think that Miss Williams will be here on behalf of um JJIC, but that those children are mandated to attend school.

So we've never had an issue with any of the children who are um detained at JGIC to attend Travis Hill.

Uh, but I will say that Travis Hill has worked uh very diligently with us to make certain that once those kids are released, they do have the opportunity to continue their education, providing the necessary school records, making sure that you're assisting the family with having those kids enrolled in a different educational setting once they are released.

So I think a lot of collaboration um goes together so that we make certain that our children remain engaged in the educational system.

Yeah, if I actually.

Let me uh I want to share with you that one of one of the issues that we brought up today, and thank you all for having us here today to bring some of the it's some of the issues around the youth and what's going on in the community.

I think that one of the things that we're talking about recent legislation, House Bill that requires that we report crimes of violence uh daily to uh in the record.

And what that data reveals to us now is that in juvenile court, crime is down, and that crimes of violence represent less than 10% of the cases that are currently being handled in juvenile court.

One of the things that we are most proud of and most supportive of is the idea of working around truancy.

We see that when kids become arrested, those kids are arrested and we find that they haven't been attending school.

We have been working very diligently as uh Judge Anderson read with the Supreme Court and other entities to make truancy a primary issue for us in the community, knowing that if children are engaged in structured activities that they're less likely to become involved in the juvenile justice system.

One of the things we talk about is how we travel to other places and how those experiences feed what we do here in New Orleans.

And one of the things we did was one of the things I did was to travel to uh to the council of juvenile and family court judges, where we learned that distributing information about truancy is most important.

In Kansas City, Missouri, we don't make up ideas, we try to go out and find ideas that people are doing that work.

So that in Kansas City, Missouri, they issue a brochure to the schools and to the families and to get people to understand that education is compulsory and that we must do it.

So what we did in the court is we created a brochure here in New Orleans that we will be distributing to schools through schools, and I've shared with uh the council members and the committee members uh several of these that we'll be sharing with the community community just to show that truancy is important, going to school is important, and we do believe that if we reduce the number of arrests that are coming up on 20% of the total number of arrests in our court, if we reduce the number of arrests that occurred during school hours, we'll not only increase public safety, but we'll increase the public's perception of what's going on during the day with students.

So our goal is to get students in school and prevent them from further escalation into the justice, juvenile justice system.

So, what did you see on your travel?

What I saw in my travel was a brochure that they use in Kansas City, Missouri to inform the community, yeah, the community and the parents of it.

We've included one, but ours is a little further advanced.

It connects you to the FENS program, and on the back of it, there's a QR code where anyone can report truancy, teachers can report truancy and report it directly to the court so that we can begin the process immediately when students are in school to prevent them from getting into trouble, really.

So that this is an idea that has worked, and we believe that we brought it here uh to New Orleans to try to uh see how we can get student more students in school and fewer, even fewer students arrested during the time when they're supposed to be in school.

So, what do they do in Kansas City when they sound somebody to be?

They bring them to what they bring them to a truancy center.

Our brochure directs the families to the families in need of services program, which is the program sponsored by the Supreme Court that handles truancy in the city and other status offenses and 10 other status offenses.

One of the things we know is that student truancy is a symptom of a problem.

When they go into the FENS program, they're able to find out whether there are other problems and other status offenses that may warrant addressing those issues that may be some sort of the cause of why they are not going to school.

I'm trying to get at what is the difference in Kansas City that you saw that makes it better than what we're doing here.

The difference in Kansas City is more students are going to school and they're getting higher reports.

Our reporting on true and say, I don't know if you know, but our reporting on truancy in New Orleans and in New Orleans is more difficult because we don't have a unified system.

So we rely on individual schools to determine whether school children are going to school and individual charter schools reporting their absences to the to the board of education.

So it's very important that we go, we at the court have to go to individual schools.

That is what our C program, the student engagement attendance team has begun to do, is go to individual schools.

We've begun with that pilot in Plessy School and the first line schools.

We've seen 11 students and we have uh seen a 62% increase.

These are initial results beginning in January.

But we believe that engaging the most egregious cases and working directly with the schools and reducing barriers will increase the number of school children that are going to school and thus and decrease the number of kids that are getting arrested.

Are you suggesting a centralized New Orleans public school system approach to truancy?

For example, yes, there are over a hundred schools.

Well, no, then elementary schools is not gonna be our problem, but maybe it is.

We only find out at this point, we only find out when we investigate uh when you truth are arrested and we find out and get this school record, yes.

Okay, and I mean it sounds like a good idea.

Yeah, it is a good idea.

That would be a good idea.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman Green, Carl, our judges.

Uh thank y'all for being here today and the work that you all do.

I want to say it again, you all want here when I first mentioned it, but in 2021, 2022, when crime was at a very high in the city, uh especially our juvenile crime.

We had a lot of naysayers and a lot of people pointing fingers and passing the blame, but collectively we work together.

Crime has come down, our juvenile crime has come down significantly, our juvenile carjacking has come down.

I know the fifth district had a high high case for juvenile carjacking.

Um so working together, we're all going in the in the right direction as a city, but not we want to be yet, but we're light years away from what we were a few short years ago.

So thank you, juvenile judges.

Um, you all have a a tough task, a lot of folks don't realize because you're very different from criminal court.

You have a lot of different factors that criminal court doesn't have to compete with, and you do it with grace and good dignity.

So we appreciate your time and your efforts.

Councilman uh King and Councilman Green, we want to personally thank you for your personal involvement and mentoring with the young man.

Uh we have seen you there.

We know that you go there often uh without fanfare, without public notice, and we really appreciate it, and it absolutely makes a difference.

So we personally thank you and for continuing to work with us.

You're welcome, and thank you for that acknowledgement.

You're welcome.

Thank you.

Any public comments for this item?

Any online comments?

All right, here and then we're going to move.

Mr.

DA's office.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Have a great answer.

DA's office is not here yet.

The DS office is here.

No, okay.

Okay, we're going to move on to um NOPD.

We love you already.

Introduce yourself, and the floor is yours.

I think they're waiting to cue it up.

Huh?

Okay, yeah.

It's like a little bit.

Where's the fifteen minutes?

It's easy.

I think it's a good compile form.

So we'll go.

I get it.

Okay.

But uh, you know, that's just kidding.

She has to get a different one.

I know that.

Does it have to have a lot of things?

Um, I don't know.

I have not seen it.

I didn't try to find a little bit.

Can you move the copies of that?

Thank you.

Oh, sorry, right.

Okay, so I have to do it.

I'm gonna do that.

No, it's not different.

Okay.

All right.

Good morning.

Um sorry for the delay as we're trying to get our PowerPoint up.

Uh really our department overview really is just gonna consist of a few items and uh we feel that the council probably needs to know about.

So one it'll start our French Quarter Security and uh Department of Public Works update the uh transfer of the parking enforcement and towing enforcement folks to an OPD.

Our crime stats are presently, year to date for twenty twenty-six, a violent reduction, our violent crime reduction update, our traffic enforcement and parking operations, recruiting efforts, our current strength and separations, and our uh infrastructures for both headquarters and other buildings, and overtime for twenty twenty six.

Next, so we'll start with the French quarter security update.

Nothing new other than the fact that you know the last paragraph will tell you Deputy Harrison is working with DPW engineers to establish guidelines for installation of barrier and next step procurement process.

We're really just waiting on that to see if we can get that figured out at last.

So it's still been on our still been on our targets uh for a while now.

We'll go into the DPW transition update.

You know, right now we have 59 parking and towing employees from DPW to NOPD.

We have 11 tow vehicles with seven drivers hired.

So uh really there's ground transportation is not under us, and uh I understand that uh that's under review.

We can move to our crime stats.

From 23, you know, we have a updated from 2023 to 2026, as when our uh initial reduction in crime began, obviously.

If you can see uh where we started out and where we are right now, and we could talk about murders, we're down almost 21% since that time.

You know, we're a year to date right now, and as you keep seeing these declines, it's really uh speaks for itself, and it's it pretty much everything we put in place since 2023 and continues to this day.

The next slide is very similar to the previous slide, so it really is nothing different with that unless you have any questions about that, and I'll wizer for that.

And really, homicide is really the main issues we want to talk about, and uh what it is we've done with that.

Our our our clearance rates for homicides are really really what's driving this reduction down for murders.

You know, our detectives have a really high clearance rate.

Right now, as it stood last week with some 105% clearance rate, it's as high as you can get or actually higher than uh most departments can even dream about.

But this is uh the work of our detectives, work of our uh meetings, and the work of our district.

So, this is really important for us, Mr.

Chair, yes, Chairman.

Yeah, I pressed the button.

I just wanted to say something.

Could you also talk um chief um about the role of the public in terms of their willingness to share information, their willingness to call 311, the willingness to meet with officers to share information with them.

Right.

And uh I'll be remiss if I didn't, you know, involve the public's communication and cooperation in this because you know, we start out with homicide, we send the detectives and officers over.

It's the people that are willing to cooperate with those officers who knew what the victim was was going through, if they had any problems with anyone, if they could give us some information to help us follow up, if they saw anything, whether it was a vehicle, whether it's somebody you recognize, and where they fled is important, it allows us to actually hopefully find you know video and then kind of take it from there.

We'll follow if we know of a vehicle, we'll follow it all the way to where we can as far as we can.

So those things are important, and that cooperation has really led to our successes.

So I appreciate you bringing that up.

You follow vehicles using license plate reading technology, LPRs, videos, which we didn't have.

No, we didn't have that kind of uh technology prior to this.

Thank you for you.

All right, all right.

Yeah, calls for service.

As you can see, it's uh uh to me it's a continual work.

Our code twos really are are answered fairly quickly.

I still want to see an improvement in our code ones, especially with certain districts, but we're working that out by hopefully providing more manpower to those districts as the next academy class clears our field training office uh uh training.

So we're really looking to do that.

And there are being some districts really gonna take uh we're gonna take advantage of our large number of people coming out now of FTO this time and uh really staff some districts appropriately that need it.

Hans, uh can I I just want to jump in here real quick.

I this is great.

I think that the reduction of violent crime is remarkable, especially year over year over year, and it it speaks to collaboration um across all departments.

Daniel Shanks, I know has been instrumental in the in the data collection and analyzing data.

Um I know my office and the other council members' office have done walkthroughs in areas that are seeing high crime, and I think that's uh contributing to the reduction.

I do have a question about um the reporting that happened.

Violent crime is down, but um sexual assault and the salve rate on sexual assault is still not where it needs to be.

Can you shed any light on that and and what we need to do to make sure that we're clearing those cases up quicker?

I think some of the issues with that is actually that sometimes these things come in later than they need to be sooner.

So that reporting is important.

Uh I think the uh investigations need to be you know uh very thorough, so that takes time.

We also would like to see some more DNA, but uh, and I can have Dr.

Kelly speak about that.

That's always really important.

And of course, staffing that DNA lab is really going to be important to an accreditation, obviously.

And I can either have her talk about it now or we can talk about it later.

It's up to you.

I we can talk about it now since it's on the table.

Yeah, go ahead now.

Yeah, so I think currently uh can you hear me?

Sorry.

Good morning.

Thank you so much for having me speak today.

Yeah, um, councilwoman Leslie Harris has consistently made it a priority to make sure that our um cases have been uh processed in an efficient manner at the Louisiana State Police Crime Lab.

And I do believe that those numbers are um low if there's any backlog at all now at um the state.

So as far as DNA is concerned, um she has ensured that the DNA is being processed as efficiently as possible.

So our job here in New Orleans is to bring that here in New Orleans so that it doesn't have to be outsourced.

And so some of the things that we are prioritizing right now is our validation process.

Um we are currently testing all of the equipment and we're making sure that it works before we can put it into casework, but there are some things that we are gonna need, which I do believe is in the PowerPoint, but one of them is the renovation of the floor that the DNA processing is going to take place on.

I believe that the next step is for the city planning commission to come and vet the floor.

They're coming on the 7th of July to look at the space, and I'll be there to give them a tour.

Um and then we also need to have the CODIS positions uh exhibition requests approved, as far as I believe, and those are the two biggest critical things that we need in order to keep going.

Um the HVAC is a huge need uh to fix that prior to us finishing our validations, and basically what that means is right now we have air blowing into the lab and it needs to be sucked out of the lab.

So we have identified DNA coming in through the vents, and we can't have you know that in a lab that we're trying to build.

That's the updates I have for now, but please let me know if you have any questions.

Okay.

All right, we'll continue.

Uh one of the reductions uh, you know, one of the reasons we have such good reductions.

Also, we instituted our violent crime meeting, which is called our grip meeting, you know.

Every week we have it with all the districts, federal partners, DA, and local partners.

And uh, you know, it's very important that information gets out to everyone.

And that's that's where we really get our most uh information, disseminate, disseminated, and actually really everybody uh has a part in this.

So that is a very in-depth meeting, what we're looking for, any anything we might be working on so that we're all on the same page and we're all rolling in the same direction.

Uh we also have the uh obviously have worked with Daniel Shanks now in his new position.

We do uh also work of quality of life issues in the quarter, and also in the uh DDD.

Matter of fact, Friday, I believe, or Thursday, I believe we had a walkthrough.

I think it's Friday, I'm sorry.

We had a walk through about certain issues that in the 8th district and the DDD, and um we had all departments there, and it's uh part of the mayor's uh, you know, um priority is to make sure all departments are working, not just the NOPD at these quality of life issues.

So we hope to see some really big improvements on that and if you have any questions on that I have Captain Colombo in the 8th district here as well to discuss a little bit of that if needed sure thank you for being here good morning can you tell me what the update is I know that was like the 200 block of Carolette that the walkthrough happened yes and the focus is really canal street and the 100 blocks particularly starting with Caronda Street so the walk that we did we started at common and Carondolette right outside of the brothers and we walked up the canal around to Baron then crossed over and did a few of the hundred blocks.

One of the things that I talk about all the time downtown is how big of an issue parking is many of our issues start with parking if people can't illegally park their car they can't illegal vent they they can't have a place to store their narcotics or their firearms so one of the things that we were doing as we did that walk was looking at the signs so we're coming up to see what DPW where we need to add signs so that that enforcement can take place.

Thank you I I look this is a reason why it was so important for me and uh former council member uh Jojo said to get parking under NOPD is because we can actually do some really good enforcement that it's not only just oh you're parking on the neutral ground illegally but it really is it goes to helping uh to solve major crime issues so I just want to thank you all for taking on that uh task of parking enforcement I know uh buddy it's been a it's been fun and it will continue but I but I do want to want people to know that it's not just it wasn't just two harass residents it literally goes into solving and preventing major crimes from happening so thank you.

Alright one of the initiatives we did do uh actually I think uh brought about by uh Daniel Shanks our federal partners and our NOPD is this sixth district surge we recently had and probably you know warm and dear to your heart council councilwoman but uh it actually was in the sixth district there was specifically targeted for that location and you see the results there really did a bang up job there and uh they really uh really were effective in that uh in that operation you know uh we talk about collaboration and not just NOPD we also had also you know uh the hida task force also seize and do a search warrant on FATS car wash which was the location in the first which uh had to do with uh you know narcotic sales really working that under a car wash you know uh you know hiding under the car wash and also you know but we're able to really uh effectively deal with that and then you know it actually was near St.

Augustine High School so that would have been the 5th district I'm sorry I said first but uh other than that involved LSP us FBI field office and the National Guard so it was a well well run operation and really yielded good results.

If you look to next page we also did operation summer storm eight work consists of eight working days and you see the results is those as well so those that collaboration is really paying off for us and we're taking full advantage of it.

And as we talked about traffic and enforcement uh I'll let Captain Mishu uh talk about it and uh hopefully can keep it under 30 minutes.

Go ahead.

So what we doing is we're actively putting more um enforcement officers out there in targeted areas of the emails I get from the council um some of the areas that we're feeling presenting a major problem for the quality life as well like drag racing burnouts uh we did an operation it it it benefited great results, and that was with our state and local partners.

They did a bang up job.

Several arrests were made, several cars seized, and numerous citations issued.

Just recently we did a saturation patrol in the sixth in the second district uptown on Claiborne.

Get it great results uh we had several DWI arrests um and also uh numerous like citations and other warrants that were held.

Like we had a fugitives that were arrested uh just in a basic traffic stop that wouldn't have been basically done had we not gotten everybody out in that area in that zone and that structure.

So our main goals and we're seeing dividends.

Um we increased our traffic and municipal arrest by 317 percent.

Uh we've written 52 percent increase in citations.

We're at 16,354 compared to 10,695, and of course, our tow wagons and our uh parking enforcers are doing a great job since I've seen uh taking over June 1st.

Again, we've collected over 83,000, 84,000 in fines.

Um we're trying to do a higher end situation to get more parking enforcers out there as well as tow operators.

So it's a collaborated effort, like the chief said, and it it wouldn't happen if it wasn't for the opportunities that the executive team gives us and frees us up to do those.

So we're constantly hitting these citizen complaints that we get from you, you uh you all, and as well as the community, and we'll continue to do that through directed enforcement.

Um I read this correctly since May 31st there have been almost six thousand um moving violations.

That's correct.

I can't hear you, sir.

Since May 1st, there's been almost 6,000 moving violations written by NOPD tow drive.

I'm sorry, I can't hear the 6,000 moving violations.

I see total sensations issue.

Yeah, so if you look at the moving violations, we have 16,354 year to date compared to 10,695.

We had over uh same thing goes for stops, vehicle stops.

Vehicle stops are up.

If you look at our vehicle stops, we've stopped over 30, 3300 uh violations compared to 2008.

So we got a 65 percent increase there.

So we're we're actively engaging in those areas.

I'm sorry, I was a couple pages ahead of you.

Um couple slides ahead of you.

Right there.

Uh 531 to 620.

It says 5,828 total violate total.

Okay, so that's parking, yes, sir.

Yes, I was thinking you were talking about the enforcement side.

The parking enforcement side with the towing, yes, sir.

We've written 5,828.

That's a collaborated effort that I uh got with Captain Palumbo, where we took some of his district offices, quality life officers.

We got them the Duncan controls and the printers, and they're out there engaged in the eighth district as well.

I then also saturated the eighth district due to the fact of the quality life incentive that we're trying to put forth in those areas and combat bad driving habits in the eighth district, and so that has seen an increase as well.

So just the uh citations right, five thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight uh collections through booting and towing went to 83,000, almost 84,000.

And of course, you see uh our toes at the bottom of the page in that bracket.

Uh we've been towing a lot of cars.

Um, like only have seven operators right now.

We we're looking to hire both those, and we'll see an increase in both of those uh statistics.

Thank you.

Okay.

As you can see, you know, the result of all this actually disenforcement, you look at traffic crashes we've had, you know, at since uh as of June 20th, you can see what the reduction in uh accidents are.

So went from 10,089 last year to 9300 presently uh in for June.

So, you know, it really has an effect, and that's uh that's really helpful to have that enforcement and people are aware that we're doing that.

So it is really helpful, helpful for accidents and fatalities and that kind of thing.

And I'll skip to the next slide because we just talked about it parking and towing.

So obviously, you know, we've increased that, and since under us, we are able to control where they go and when they are able to really be effective for us, especially during special events.

Just quickly, I I want to commend you on collecting eighty-three thousand dollars in parking fines.

I think that's remarkable, and we need to keep up the good work.

Um, as we continue to try to whittle down our budget issues.

So thank you for for that.

The collection part is the important one.

I'm wondering what the collection versus um versus not collected is.

So maybe we can get that from the uh Comptroller at some point.

I think we can provide that.

Why don't you move on to our recruitment efforts?

Uh this year uh we've had 773 applications, which is uh increase uh, you know, of actually we have seven seventeen hundred and seventy for this year versus nine ninety-seven from last year.

So that's uh significant increase from last from the previous year.

Uh one of the things we'd like to see is you know, in the next page, if you look at it, we'd like to see a little bit quicker uh background investigations, but a lot of that has to do with our psychological and medical, and that takes a while.

We've been trying to push that along with those uh those uh professionals that do that, but uh we'd like to see a little bit more out of it, and we've been kind of pushing that.

So far this year we have 44 hired versus 32 last year.

As I said, we have quite a significant number in the queue.

Next page we'll see uh our classes.

You know, we've been steadily between 25 to 30, some odd recruits right now for the coming class and class two or nine coming up.

We have 10 hired, six schedule onboarding, and 18 in sites, 33 in background.

So that's where we really need to make that improvement on uh sites and our background checks, and we're we're still working with that.

Our staffing levels right now, presently above 900, not very much over.

We hope to see about nine, you know, uh a little bit closer to 9 30, 9 40 at the next class, but uh we'll be look watching that, and that's really what we're trying to do.

Our civilian stat remains at 361, and our separations are lower than they've been in the previous years, obviously.

I think I remember somewhere about a hundred officers, but it's about 47 right now.

We move on to our facilities, which is one of our biggest uh priorities to fix obviously our central evidence and property building.

I'm sure you've heard the superintendent numerous times talk about that building.

Uh no need to go over it.

We have some needs in our academy.

Uh the AC alone is uh very expensive.

That's why we are trying to move to the facility, MLK school, and it's being vetted right now by DPW.

You know, we also hope to have a police fire EMS Academy out there and hopefully some regionalization in that particular school.

It's certainly large enough, and uh DPW is presently looking at us to see how feasible this is.

Obviously, our own headquarters right now.

You know, the main thing for us is uh AC unit, they turn it off at 6 p.m., which is real difficult for us to operate on a 24-hour basis and uh have uh you know the AC shut off at 6 P.

But we're working on that with them and and see what we can do to get that uh done.

Yeah, on the weekend certainly there's no AC either.

So we're working around that.

We're trying to get those issues settled.

And you'll see various districts have issues with AC.

So in this heat, it's really uh something we take seriously for our folks and and hopefully get those things rectified.

With that said, really, we're open up to some questions if you have any more.

Councillor Harris.

Yeah, I just want to go back to this last slide.

I mean, the second the sixth district is out again.

Yes.

Yes, yes, it is.

It is.

I mean, this has been like four going on five years of the sixth district having no AC.

We're working with um DPM.

Um, it's parts problems for the AC again.

Half of the building is being um has AC and the other half doesn't.

Okay, and then I'll get with Trey also to see if we can press this.

The second district, the AC is installed improperly.

What is happening?

Uh that again is DPM, and that is the information that I received from the chief Engineer uh stating that it was installed and properly.

Okay, I so this is this is one of the it's a new building.

I I know, and that's I mean, this is one of those things where we need to make sure that we are doing uh checks when we have new buildings built, that people are installing things properly, and that we're going back to the installers to try to recoup the money, 17,000 for repair for an AC that was installed improperly.

That shouldn't be something that the city eats.

That should be whoever installed the AC improperly.

Um, and it just continues.

I mean, uh you guys hear me all the time about the AC and it's always in the summertime, and we have our poor police officers as we're trying to recruit new officers sitting in the heat in their offices, and able to be in their offices.

Uh so this is not just uh quality of life issues for our current NOPD officers who work so diligently, but it's a quality of life issue for recruitment and for our civilians who work in these offices as well.

So, look, I'll get with um Trey to see what we can do about this.

But I need our law department to take a look at some of these issues.

Okay, we appreciate any help that you could give us to rectify.

Thank you.

One of the things I didn't talk about uh also and just go ahead and talk about it is obviously Dr.

Kelly talked about the uh lab hire requests that we have, and uh you know what we're looking to get, uh, but also our overtime um you know uh usage this year.

So we're really we have uh we're really on on schedule to really get our budget over time and stay within it.

Uh but uh right now what we're looking at is is really where we are monthly, and you know, right now we're averaging that amount between three fifths, three sixty, four fifty around there.

So that's really important.

But we do have several events coming up, obviously, and uh our our our overtime is scrutinized very carefully, and not only by us but also the city can uh the city and also uh the LLA.

So we're really making an effort, and if we need to really adjust, we will.

But with the events coming up, we anticipate uh, you know, a little bit more usage, but uh that's really all we have.

It's difficult to point out a particular district with a lot of the good work going on right now, but I do want to take an opportunity to commend the work that's being done recently in the fifth district.

A couple of years ago, a few years ago, at this time of the year there were 30 plus murders in that district, and it's still terrible to say that we have murders going on, but we have four murders that have taken place in the fifth district this year.

You can't ignore the fact that a lot of it has to do with the this reduction has to do with the good investigative work that's being done and the cooperation of our residents and our citizens sharing information in the fifth district alone recently.

We've taken down a crack creation facility, which was a car wash across from where students were participating in recreational activities.

They took down in the seventh ward a home where drug distribution and guns had become the norm, and people were calling our office all the time.

We know about the five arrests based on a murder that result was the result of someone fighting over ounces of marijuana or something like that.

We also had carjackings that were solved recently by arrest of four individuals, including two juveniles, one person who was arrested the next day who committed a car jacking in the um in the fifth district and then wound up on Japanica Street.

So I just want to say though those arrests make a big difference, and it's hard to point out a particular um district, but I can be redundant on that one.

The 5th district, I want to commend them because I attend those meetings, I talk to the people in the ninth ward, I talk to the people in the desire community and the seventh of wall community, they're feeling better than they did years ago, and a lot of it is because of the investigative work that's being done.

So I want to thank you all for the work that you're doing that's making our citizens safer because we can't deny that our city is a much safer city than it was in 2022 and 2023, and that's the result of a combined effort, but we cannot hide the fact that arrest, and I wish that no one would get arrested because they would not commit crimes, but arrest have made a big difference in making citizens feel comfortable.

In the ninth war.

There was a time when people would not have Bible study because they would have to leave their Bible studies and hear of the hear of gunshots and their car windows broken and the like.

A lot is changed.

We're moving in the right direction.

And to all members of the law enforcement community, everyone who has something to do with it, we've all played a role.

But I want to recognize um a district that um I'm a I see often in a community that has been neglected that's feeling a lot better, the night ward, especially.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Green.

I do want to uh second those comments as far as crime reduction, looking at the numbers you provided.

Um year to date, there are 16 homicides, and I would we're not gonna do a victory lap.

16 is 16 too many, but if you multiply that by four, um for the remaining three quarters, we look like we may be under 70 homicides for the year.

Knock on wood, of course.

Again, no victory lap, but that is a significant decrease from what we were a few short years ago, and that's that goes to the hard work of NOPDN and other criminal justice partners.

Um just wanna emphasize the traffic enforcement.

Um was mentioned earlier, a couple of spots, hot spots are always St.

Claude and the Gaulle, East and Westbound.

I've seen increase in traffic uh enforcement there, and it's been appreciated.

People appreciate it, especially on the West Bank.

You have a lot of folks coming and going for Bell Chase that think the gall is a freeway.

Uh not a freeway.

Thanks a racetrack.

So we appreciate you all letting our out of uh parish visitors understand just like they want us to respect their roads and highways.

We expect them to say the same on the West Bank.

Um I want to ask about a recent incident.

You can speak about it.

The shooting that happened Saturday that shut down the Crescent connection for a couple hours.

Any any details you can give about that?

No, uh we did uh we did have uh someone shot in the vehicle.

Uh, unfortunately, you know, uh that vehicle we're looking for has still not been found, but we anticipate finding that fairly quickly.

Uh right now, the person who was shot is still alive, and obviously the problem is with that one, and it was uh you know, unfortunately, there was a child in the car, but the child was unharmed.

But uh we are we are seriously investigating that one, and the once we find out where they are, they'll be put on our priority list to be arrested.

All right, uh, thank you for that information.

We do have Mr.

Neil, do we have any online comments?

Okay, we do have two public comment cards.

First one from Mr.

Beldon Batisse, and second from Miss Scott.

Good morning, Consul.

How y'all doing?

First of all, I want to get his gentleman.

I don't I don't know if I'm gonna say your name wrong, Captain Miss you.

Let me tell you, this gentleman did world-class service for Jerome Smith.

So I wanna accommodate this man, first of all, because you know he did world class.

When I'm saying world class, I like the way he ran his division.

And he's really into the culture.

So I want to shout you out.

I appreciate that, the bottom of my heart.

Second of all, I want to shout Freddie King out, Freddie.

Man, you've been doing some great work.

Um in the community on the ground, Jeff Cut, your community, but you still working through it.

So I just want you to know that from the bottom of my heart, I appreciate what you're doing.

Leslie Harris, I appreciate the world class, Freddie.

You gain world class.

But Leslie, I speak, I appreciate the world-class stuff that you're doing with the homeless.

Um, how you and Allison reach out to the young ladies, reach out to everybody.

I appreciate that.

DA Jason Williams, I appreciate you and no doubt, no dice.

Y'all doing a one job because they're cleaning the communities and everything.

So I want to run through my little thing real fast.

I'm here, Freddie.

I got 48 seconds.

You know, I did the um congratulations.

So I might need two more minutes.

But I'm here to deal today.

I'm here to talk about the NOPD.

We talk not you, Mr.

Michel, because I need that world class.

But um, but um, we talk about transparency and accountability.

Here, we got an officer by the name of David Barnes.

Now, we got rid of one officer that was black, was named Anthony Bakewell for sexual assault.

But my question is, Ledley, because I know you're serious about this.

Why is David Bond being dealt with for sexual assault?

This man got three charges on him.

The NO officers call him the booty tickler, and I ain't trying to be funny.

But at the end of the day, they're not doing him nothing because he's white.

And if you make around the black, so making it look like making it look like the racial, and all my masks, well, that's what I'm gonna do with that.

Now we got office of when low.

We talk about gunbox, we talk about murder, but they're not like the went hold enough.

And I'm about to finish it.

Thank you.

You can wrap up, Mr.

Batis.

I'm calling all the house.

The deal with PIB, you dealt with another sexual assault.

They ain't doing a key fat challenge, the B fly.

Because they take it seriously and I'm finished for you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Batis.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Uh next, Ms.

Shanti Scott, followed by Marr.

Last name, uh Marr and then uh Tony Jones.

Good morning.

My name is Shantae Scott.

I am the mother of Jasley Scott, who was killed on November 24, 2019.

I stand before the New Orleans Police Department, asking answers that my family has been waiting years to receive.

Why was my son publicly identified on NOPD's website and in the news as a suspect in a violent crime nearly two months after he had already been murdered?

Why wasn't my family given a public apology?

Why was the correction quietly sent to media outlets instead of publicly clearing my son's name?

Why were Andrew Gantt's mother, Deanka Johnson, and his uncle Willie Gantt Jr.

not questioned after Andrew returned home following the shooting?

According to investigations, Andrew Gantt went home, took a shower, and was in contact with family members before turning himself in.

Was that fully investigated?

Why was NOPD officer Victor Gantt Jr.

the suspect's father permitted to transport evidence involving his own son?

Why was his son's phone reportedly left behind while other items were collected?

Was that was this inconsistent with NOPD policy and evidence handling procedures?

During Officer Victor Gantt Jr.

interview, he stated that he called the third district and Sergeant Rob Barray asked him whether his son was involved in a shooting.

If he already knew his son had been involved in a fatal incident, why wasn't that statement examined more closely?

Why wasn't this treated with the seriousness it deserves?

These are not accusations.

These are questions that deserve transparent answers.

Accountability bills, public trust, and every family deserves confidence.

Any homicide investigation of the carrying without confidence of needless and according to policy.

I also asked the need to be honest.

It was an asking why I couldn't do the show that was a happy why I see a files when I said, Thank you, Ms.

Scott.

Hey.

Hello, my name is Antonia Maher.

Um I am standing here in solidarity with Sister Shantae Scott.

Uh the mic didn't pick it up before the record.

She did ask that the videos related to her son's uh murder be released and the records be unsealed.

She has been very dutiful in following up on the details of her case.

And she's had to live without her son for seven long years.

He was murdered the night before Thanksgiving.

I think everyone here can sympathize with the fact that on the holidays you want to be with your family.

Jasley Scott was her only son, and she deserves a fair and just investigation.

We talked about in this NOPD uh report that the crime rate in the city is down, and that is a good thing.

No thanks to our uh president or the agenda of Jeff Landry, who would be happy to squeeze every nickel and dime out of the city and wouldn't bat an eye if every black family was out on the street.

But that being said, we need our city council of solidarity and getting justice.

Crime is down on the street, but how are we dealing with criminal activity and corruption in the NOPD?

This is a serious issue.

And Shantae Scott is here today, but for her, there's so many more mothers that didn't have the courage or didn't have the support to get up and talk to city council to get up and fight for their case.

So I respect that, you know, this this meeting is is part of our democratic process.

And our in our in our our public comment, we have we have demands that we're putting on, you know, the NOPD and City Council and Moreno, but they're simple.

We want Victor Gann Jr.

to be investigated for his role in investigating his own son's uh criminal activity, the murder of J.

Slee Scott.

We want him to be fired for any breaking of policy and wrongdoing.

And we want democratic civilian oversight over the police department because we do not have that.

Since the federal consent decree has ended, we just have to rely on the PIB, which is the police, police, and the police.

They're all friends.

How are we supposed to trust whenever they send back a paper and say, oh, we didn't find any wrongdoing?

There's no backup for that from the civilian side.

Justice for Jace, thank you.

The pluses, Jones, Tony.

So our duplicate, I'm just pronounced the name.

All right.

Uh Tony Jones, 2111 Domain Street.

Uh, I'm speaking in solidarity with Shantae.

Um, I hear about all these efforts that the NLPD is doing to make us feel safer.

Uh, but we will fail to uh be safe as long as black civilians don't feel that they're getting equal treatment by the NLPD, by the criminal justice system at large, uh, by the council, uh, when they bring up their concerns.

Now we face we focus on Shantae's case because it's so, you know, public.

Um, but it's tons of cases.

This particular, but this is a general pattern we see.

And if we wanted to build that trust, I think we start off with these practical concerns that are being brought up around this particular issue.

It's a great starting spot.

First, Gantt has to be fired.

And I'm surprised they're not cutting my mic last time I came here.

Uh Shantae's mic was cut and anyone else's mic was cut when this office is his name was brought up.

Um but he's his involvement in the death of jail with Arthur, the coroner's failure to give that family justice, his role in investigating his son's convicted killing of Shantae's child, um, his uh reported in the news overtime fraud, are all issues that we can't, you know, stress when we see uh happening in the NLPD department.

Uh we need federal charges and we need the council and the criminal justice uh community to be helping this mother, not intimidating her.

Last time we came, uh it's all in video on the record.

Uh NLPD was intimidating this mother as she tried to ask the DA questions pertaining to her own son's case.

The DA was willing to answer those questions, but the council was not willing to give her her two minutes to speak.

Uh, we need uh community oversight.

We need a civilian police accountability council to do what uh needs to be done with this council, and the police themselves failed to do.

And we need public comment and free from censorship.

I'm tired of coming here having my mic cut.

Uh no one bought it up yet, but last time I came here, I was dragged out of this council of investigation.

My judge is sitting here.

I'm not making this up.

My judge is sitting right here.

I gotta see this man on uh the ninth again because this council doesn't respect black people's opinions.

Thank you, Comments.

The Williams, you're up next.

Thank you.

Wait.

The police are finished?

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

Thank you all for the work that you do.

The progress is clear.

I look forward to continuing to work with you.

Whenever you all are ready.

Thank you.

And good morning.

Uh and thank you all for your consistency with focusing on criminal justice issues.

Uh, and thank you for having us here today as we continue to navigate new and existing challenges.

My office remains committed to investing in proactive solutions and public safety strategies.

Uh New Orleans is still outpacing uh American urban cities, uh, much larger than ours, much more resource than ours, and outpacing other parishes in the state in terms of bringing violent crime numbers down.

Uh that should there should be a news story on how that has been accomplished uh every single week uh because it was not easy.

Uh and it is unprecedented collaboration amongst a host of agencies, uh, nonprofit, public leaders, you all, um, as well as citizens doing things differently, treating their city differently, treating each other differently.

I want to focus on no dice.

In March, through our new dice strategy, the office partnered with law enforcement to execute the seizure of NOLA tire kingdom, disrupting criminal activity associated with the property and improving public safety and just neighborhood quality of life in that community.

And in April, we proceeded with the seizure of FATCH car wash, another targeted enforcement action aimed at addressing locations linked to ongoing criminal activities and quality of life concerns.

All of these efforts were done with too many agencies to name.

Every agency at the disposal of the people of the city of New Orleans that received taxpayer dollars were involved in this coordinated and strategic effort.

Efforts to address human trafficking are ongoing in the NOPD 7th district, and collaboration on crime prevention strategies to prevent escalation of neighborhood concerns are consistently occurring in the eighth.

You've heard uh the NOPD discuss uh a good amount of that.

Additionally, there are operations underway.

I won't get into specifics in the first, fifth, and sixth districts, where partners are targeting identified crime hotspots through coordinated enforcement, environmental improvements, and community engagement.

The information is coming from citizens and NOPD, ATF, the District Attorney's Office, Communities of Hope are responding to citizens.

By combining the intelligence that we are gathering from neighbors and neighborhoods, investigating in new resources that have been absent, and prosecutorial expertise to make sure that we uh make an impact once uh problematic issues are pulled away.

We're working to identify repeat offenders, strengthen investigations, and disrupt criminal networks before additional crime occurs.

I start with no dice uh in this conversation because unlike other traditional uh law enforcement efforts, it's not the cat and mice of uh catch and move on.

There's an investment that allows for so many other stakeholders to get involved and change the community and environment that was breeding uh the criminal activity.

Uh, communities of hope have proven again and again to be so impactful to the work that we do.

Uh they district that they demonstrate what is possible.

Uh, when faith leaders, neighborhood organizations, uh, college kids, governmental agencies, and law enforcement work towards a shared goal, a safer community.

Because we all have a stake and a better quality of life, uh, but now we're recognizing it, and we're all seeing the position we can play on that field.

This collaboration has strengthened strengthened communication between residents and public agencies, identifying concerns, removing pre-existing barriers, and coordinating solutions that no single organization could accomplish alone.

Public safety is strongest when prevention, uh, community engagement and accountability are all working together.

The partnerships between Community of Hope, City Hall, and the District Attorney's Office remain a cornerstone of the strategy, and we are committed to strengthening that collaboration as we build on the momentum we've created.

Communities of hope and members of this body were with the mayor this past weekend uh at Loyol University, doubling down on that commitment.

We will continue to do that work, and we thank all of you all for weighing in on weekends and late nights.

Uh, joint OPDA and NOPD training.

Uh, you'll see in slide three, uh, and a joint effort to strengthen courtroom testimony.

Uh, the district attorney's office recently conducted another joint training exercise in which uh ADAs and NOPD recruits come together for a mock trial workship workshop uh in which recruits grow more comfortable testifying in court while prosecutors are allowed to hone uh their courtroom advocacy of proper witness preparation uh and effective uh cross examination and direct examination of witnesses.

We extend a huge thanks to Judge Marcus Delarge, who routinely permits his courtroom uh to be used as professional development workspace so that people can feel the heat uh in those practice moments so that that heat is less intense uh when the rubber meets the road when victims uh and survivors are in court.

Uh, collaborative public safety efforts.

Uh, we've also accepted an invitation from council member Jason Wynne Hughes uh to join a multi-agency effort aimed at addressing illegal tire dumping, uh which we know contributes to environmental hazards and conditions that negatively impact public safety.

Uh we met out in New Orleans East at Franklin Avenue Baptist Church with stakeholders throughout the East, which is a vast space.

Uh we came together and were able to come up with, I believe, some common sense solutions that will that will invest in already existing technology so that we are not draining the manpower of the NOPD, but actually using technology to issue spot and help create reports that will pull in the sheriff's office as well so that we can have strong cases when it comes to illegal dumping.

I'd like for you to imagine for a moment a scenario in which technology, whether it's camera, whether it's from a stationary camera or moving camera, being able to tell you the license plate type of car and then the individual dumping volumes and volumes of illegal tires into New Orleans East, and not just stopping there with an arrest or citation of that individual, but also using technology to track where they're getting the tires from because it's it's illegal from uh mechanic shops and tire shops to uh transfer tires to uh uh someone who's supposed to be uh dumping them uh when in fact they don't have uh a licensed legal way of getting rid of those tires.

So we want to go after the root causes of all that.

Everybody that's saving money uh from their business to harm our community.

Solving these problems requires collaboration across agencies, and we remain committed to being active partners in those efforts.

Legislative updates, uh recent legislative actions impose severe operational challenges to the city of New Orleans, to the court, to the DA's office, uh, to City Hall, and that will require added patience support and collaborations from justice system agencies and stakeholders.

You would think at a time when we have demonstrated uh group success from a strategy that was laid out, you would think there would be a commitment to double down on those resources rather than to cut them and give us less courtrooms to do that work, uh, provide less days of the week for survivors to have their cases heard.

ADA warrant reductions earlier this month.

Certain lawmakers endeavored to destabilize the Orleans parish justice system by slashing the number of ADA warrants for prosecutors in New Orleans Parish.

Now, when you cut a warrant, I want to be very clear.

A lot of people think when budgets get cut, that means it affects how much coffee you can buy, how much uh uh paper, printer supplies, ADA warrants are an allocation that by law can only be used to pay prosecutor salaries.

Each warrant is worth $50,000 and can only be used for prosecutor salaries.

A single warrant isn't enough to cover the full salary in fringe of a single prosecutor in any parish.

Uh so we are upon relying upon local funding to close that gap.

The ADA warrant bill substantially increased that gap in Orleans Parish by cutting a half a million dollars in prosecutor salaries uh while boosting resources around the state.

But as anyone realizes, whether you're a Republican or Democrat, black, white Vietnamese, or Latina, criminals in crime don't know parish boundaries.

So when crime ticks up in one parish, there's a ripple of impact on those surrounding parishes.

So the idea that wrong headed state leadership believes that they want to hurt a democratic parish, they are so false sided in how they're impacting this entire state.

Hurting New Orleans, frankly, hurts Louisiana.

This hit comes on top of an already substantial cut from our city allocation because we're dealing with a budget crisis already.

Uh and we succeeded.

Most cities don't succeed in a budget crisis.

This city council, this mayor's office, this DA's office, this police department has succeeded in a fiscal crisis.

Most municipalities simply cannot.

This will impact our ability to recruit new attorneys because they watch the news and retain experienced ones as fewer resources mean lower pay and already impossible caseloads.

Prosecutors already work grueling hours and only can fit so much work into a single day.

Ultimately, less funding equals fewer prosecutors, fewer cases updated, more mothers waiting for information about what went on in their cases.

At some point, the idea of doing more with less will reach a breaking point.

We understand our own city current fiscal constraints, and we'll always endeavor to be good team members and reducing the city's debt.

We will have no choice but to ask for more resources to serve the victims that are already in the queue, the next of kin that are already in the queue waiting for their cases to be resolved.

Court capacity.

The legislation reducing the number of judges overseeing criminal matters will also place additional pressure on court capacity and case movement.

A criminal jury trial can easily consume an entire week.

But with this case consolidation among fewer courtrooms, a single jury trial will delay more cases from moving forward.

Because when a case is being tried, there are no motion hearings that are held in that section of court.

There are no other cases that were previously set on the docket for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of that week.

All of those cases are continued so that that trial can happen.

And by this legislature, reducing that bottleneck by three more courtrooms will impact families in New Orleans.

Despite these challenges, adversities bring opportunity.

Putting in hard work and adapting to the evolving needs is going to have to require something more than manpower when the money necessary to pay the men and women that do this work is cut.

Collaboration and efficient workflows will prove essential in keeping the system afloat.

Big shout out to Nathaniel Weaver.

He's typically not brought up in these meetings, but the work that he has been doing to come up with this bus that will allow all public safety system agencies to communicate with each other electronically and talk to each other is doing work that cities across this country are working on now, but the city of New Orleans is leading that work, and what will this will allow us to do more with fewer people.

Stretching funds into 2026 and reducing pressure on to city funds.

It is going to be damn near impossible.

We continue to pursue cost saving opportunities wherever feasible.

Cost control efforts have included everything from reducing support staff positions to reducing the frequency of cleaning services to halting full coverage of attorney bar dues that are typically covered by the DA's office and for the city attorney's office.

We're no longer paying for those in full because we cannot.

Turn to a bright light, our homicide unit.

I always want to try to conclude on the positive because there's a lot for this city and this community to be proud of.

It was recently reported that New Orleans is on pace to record its fewest fewest murders since 19 since the 1960s, continuing a dramatic drop in violent crime that began in 2023.

Superintendent Kirkpatrick has been an excellent partner in this work to bring down crime, and we will look forward to building on this momentum.

I'm especially proud of the role OPDA's homicide unit plays in reducing the violent crime rate between January 1 and June 25 of 2026.

Indictments were obtained in 46 homicide cases, all of our homicide unit except one involving a child brought by our special victims unit.

This is a reflection of the ongoing work of prosecutors and law enforcement partners to build stronger cases.

There was a time when we could not build cases as strong as we are now.

And building those cases early from the ground up from moments after there has been blood flow, that is what has made us have the success rate that we have in court with juries coming back with unanimous jury verdicts.

Our work is not over.

Now is the time to build on these incredible gains in the face of unprecedented uh fiscal adversity from the state.

The creation and implementation of large scale of a large scale public safety master plan, I believe is necessary, and I believe the time is now.

Inclusive of all safety partners, uh public agencies, and this will allow us to continue to drive down violent crime uh and allow families to thrive.

I want to thank uh the members of this city council who uh over a year ago, uh before this last election, were reaching in to try to figure out what we could do differently to reduce violent crime.

You all met with Thomas Apt, who is now working with uh the Moreno administration.

Uh, and the effort there is violence reduction.

Uh, because when a governor and a state house want to cut our ability to do the work that we've proven we can do, uh, when they want to handicap the agencies responsible for for creating uh a generational sea change uh in terms of violent crime, we've got to do more.

And the one thing we can do is reduce cases from coming into the system.

So I'm hopeful that by working with Thomas Abb uh and drilling down with our no-dice program and communities of hope, we create fewer incidences of violent crime in this community, which would still mean that we are attacking and reducing violent crime, but not just in courtrooms, but in homes and in streets.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, DA Williams.

I'll start with Council Barris.

Any questions?

Uh no real questions.

I just want to commend you on uh the collaboration as I did with NRPD.

Um citywide to reduce uh violent crime in our city.

I mean, this is just really remarkable, and we need to take this moment to celebrate it, knock on what, but celebrate it too.

Um, because this isn't just one agency's work, it's the collaborative process that we all need to continue on in the CEO administration.

So thank you and thank you for giving us Daniel Shanks on the administrative side.

I know um it's a big win for the mayor and a loss for the DA, but I know that he continues to work with you.

Any loss for city Hall is a gain for the DA's office.

Thank you, Mr.

DA.

Thank you for your presentation.

Um, could you just comment for the public so that they'll understand the relationship that you have the cooperation on a state and federal level to achieve some of the goals that we've achieved?

Yeah, you know, um, I can tell you that uh U.S.

Attorney David Corsell has been uh an amazing partner in terms of asking and reaching out.

What can he do?

What cases can he take on uh to assist uh the city of New Orleans, and he's doing that um uh and he's doing it in a much more robust way than we've seen uh in recent history, and I can't thank him enough for those efforts.

And that doesn't just apply to uh the U.S.

Attorney's Office, it also applies to the U.S.

Marshal Service, uh, who brought us through a very difficult time as well as the FBI uh and the ATF, uh Josh Jackson, uh and Jonathan Tapp, uh, those individuals are engaged with the NOPD, they're engaged with the DA's office, and we're constantly looking at other ways uh that we can reduce violence uh in the city of New Orleans in a strategic way, not just for the sake of numbers, but in a strategic way.

Uh, and we will continue uh to do that.

Um, I hope that we can turn the corner uh or find new ways to help the city of New Orleans uh uh from the state level.

Uh we are uh we're a we we generate a lot of income uh for the state of Louisiana, no matter how you look at it.

Uh and I hope that there are folks, regardless of party affiliation, who are reading some of the legislation coming through the State House, who realize that the City of New Orleans, the direction of the city of New Orleans, uh how we're perceived nationally on national news, how uh conventions and visitors are increasing their uh their visits to the state uh is largely based upon the Cinderella Phoenix story of the city of New Orleans coming from being the homicide capital to the most successful city in terms of driving down violent crime.

That should encourage people at the state house to support efforts that are here in the city.

We always have to agree.

We don't always have to we won't always agree.

I don't agree with my wife all the time.

Uh, but we have to understand we're one household.

Uh and the state and the city of New Orleans have to act like one household.

I was at a tourism luncheon, and um Lieutenant Governor Nungesser spoke and he mentioned that tourism had a $20 billion impact in Louisiana last year, and $10 billion was in this little city.

The city that right now is being afflicted by um unfunded mandates and is being attacked in ways that you know very honestly aren't justified.

Um, I understand if you want to make changes, but the just the general posture of cutting from a city who actually provides such support to the state of Louisiana, this is not the time for me to do it, but it is something that we need to think about a little bit more.

For every event that the state signs up and collects revenues at the Superdome, the convention center along the at the Smoothie King Arena, from all of the rents that are collected along the navigable waterways, whether it be Lake Punchatrain or the New Basin Canal or the Industrial Canal or the Riverfront, the City of New Orleans provides police protection, fire protection, EMS protection, and of those 10 million visitors who come to our city every year, there are some who unfortunately go astray of the law and have to be prosecuted, and everyone office does that.

I mean, and you're you're so right, and it's not just visitors coming in from other states.

It if you think about some of the more serious uh newsworthy cases uh of shootings that have occurred on Canal Street, French Court over the years, folks from Point Capete, Baton Rouge, Shreeport, who have come down here and tried to settle their score, right?

So this idea that uh they want to cast New Orleans in a bad light.

Um, you know, I I I wish there was a talent.

I wish there was a news agency that was looking at the number of individuals from other parents who are coming down here firing guns into crowds.

Um but we have that's our job.

That's our work, that's NOPD's work, that's a district attorney's work, and we do it day in and day out.

Uh whether they cut us a half a million dollars or not.

Every illegal dumping arrest that has taken place has involved someone from Slide Dell.

I hate to say it, but it's from the data shows.

That's what the data shows.

That's where the data shows the cars are going.

Right.

So at the end of the day, the city of New Orleans has many, many challenges, but I would hope that there can be a more cooperative relationship with the state, and that the state recognizes that yes, we are in many respects the um economic driver for the entire state of Louisiana.

As was mentioned without using those words by the lieutenant governor.

So I just hope that there will be more cooperation in the future, recognizing that if as the city of New Orleans continues to make progress on public safety, so then there does the entire state.

Frank from the same thing.

Right.

Well, I want to mention one other thing to you, which I mentioned to you all the time.

You're a Carver graduate.

Paul, your parents, congratulations to them, a great institution.

You see all of the progress that's being made at Carlton.

And they're very excited about all of the efforts.

Uh uh that uh that means a lot uh to those folks who who saw that at its pinnacle.

Uh now they're in their 80s, and then to know what that decline was like and to see that city resources and the private and public dollars are going towards uh the albumada.

Uh it's a beautiful thing.

I want to kind of end on a shout out of positive.

What you're seeing at Carver is symbolic of what's going on in our city in many respects, but it's very special at Carver.

It's not just the stadium, it's the test scores, everything improvement.

Look, as a carpet graduate students.

Who are doing outstanding work with different programs.

So, but I also want you to help me in that area, and you know where I want your help.

Yes, sir.

I need something done on Johnny Jackson.

I'm it's it's on our list.

It's on the no dice list right now.

I've got a new Gail Benson building a new school, we've got a new stadium going on, we've got expansion going on.

I'll just leave it at that.

You've got to protect those investments.

All right, thank you.

Well, I'll finish off uh saying thank you, Gay Williams.

You've done you're doing more with less.

Um crime numbers are coming down all over the city, all different aspects of crime, um, but the major crime categories, and it's that's definitely a part of that uh growing that the right direction of crimes moving in.

So uh I don't want to believe this anymore.

Just want to say Councilman Green, I believe council member EA Williams is a Woodward, Woodward Academy graduate, not mistaken.

That's right.

That's that's right.

All right, uh, out there in Georgia.

But his parents.

That's a root.

I like that.

That's the right.

Remember the uh decal and back to your car back in the day, nonetheless.

Moving on, uh, we have a couple comment cards.

First, Mr.

Golden Batiste, followed by Tony Jones.

Good morning once again, Council.

Uh Dear Jason Williams, I thank Daniel Shanks and you again from doing that new dice work.

Um, very impressed with it because without new dice, a lot of crime will be going on.

And the part about no dice that I love, they're working with the Nor Parks, they're working with the community, and they're uh in the community.

They are at the park, so I want to commend you for that.

Um my question next is to Freddie and the and Leslie and the rest of the council and Joe Jerusalem.

Um we see that Mr.

Jason Williams was cut by the um racist governor Jeff Landry.

And I'm interested to know why we are not governed at the state.

Because we do a lot of work with the state.

The state do a lot of money.

If you look at the culture of New Orleans, Billy Nungets sits on 48 billion dollars.

But every day we are watching this racist governor Jeff Landrew cut major programs.

So uh as I was sitting there, it brought it came to me, we watched a clerk, Chelsea.

She gained two courts.

But where's that money and that revenue gonna come from?

I mean, she's doing her job, she's doing what she gotta do.

So it brought it.

I see the colonel sitting there.

So if he cut the colonel, where the money is gonna come from.

So I'm just asking the council.

It's time to have that tough conversation with Jeff, because he cut the old programs and he's gonna cut more at the end of the day.

We know he's coming for more.

But listen, our revenue bringing billions, and we don't get 10% of that money.

It's time for the council to take action.

I'm calling on JP.

I'm calling on the mayor in this council to take action and hold Jeff accountable.

Being just not that with public works, we do the state work.

But it's time to take action and we go to war with Jeff.

And I'm lining the soldiers up.

So we are ready.

Thank you, Mr.

Baptiste.

Tony Jones.

Well, I forgot uh good one more thing.

One more.

I forgot somebody.

This lady right there is doing an excellent job at the juvenile justice center.

Uh excellent job.

And I'm saying she bringing all kind of programs, world class.

So we gotta find out some more money too.

Thank you, Mr.

Betsy.

She'll have a presentation at the end.

Uh Tony, once again speaking for the New Orleans Alliance.

Uh, lotsman said in this meeting about state and federal pressure, which I think is you know kind of appropriate because of the uh immense amount of uh partisan and racially motivated difficulties these governments have been pushing on us.

But really, where the uh rubber hits the vote and where we all have to be accountable is at the local level, uh, and really where uh the state of civil rights is often measured by the community is the way in which law enforcement uh is uh treats uh black civilians and whether not to keep equal treatment.

Uh I see that the DA has put a heavy focus on this high rate of conviction, and so I know Sean has some questions, but a question I have is uh, you know, was the same level of enthusiasm really brought to the Jace uh case back in what was it, 2019, 2020?

Uh did the prosecution did it best to get justice, or was this seen as something not worth uh properly charging?

Uh, you know, what could have been a first-degree murder charge uh with negligent homicide?

Was that the same level of enthusiasm that we're seeing with these recent violent uh crimes and prosecutions?

Uh maybe it wasn't something that the office thought would come up seven years later that this mother wouldn't still be fighting.

But uh this mother is very good at getting the word out, and the community cares about this a lot.

Uh I know because I'm very good at getting the word out too.

And when I'm organized with uh activists from places like Indivisible, they know about this case, they care about this case, they have Shantae speak.

When I organized the Palestine Solidarity uh activist, they know about this case, they have Shantay speak, they know about it, the students know about it, labor leaders know about it.

Uh, these uh lawyers care and they know about it.

Uh, I know this because when I get arrested and I have to go to court, uh I they give me pro bono representation because they care about uh the rights of the community.

Uh elder activists like Malik Raheem cares about this.

But the only people who seem to not care is the actual communal justice committee uh uh community when it comes to these prosecutions.

So Jason Williams, are you proud of how your department handled the case?

Thank you.

Next we have Mar uh Tony Moore.

Is it possible to have a response to what Tony was saying?

Well, that's we have public comment, really.

So you could talk to DA offline if you like to.

Okay.

Um my name is Antonia Mar.

I'm again here to speak on behalf of uh the Freedom Roads Socialist Organization, and here with Sister Shantae.

Um I think what we've been talking about is this administration, both the Trump administration and the Landry administration and the repression of black voters.

We've been seeing, and also we've all seen the murder of Cohen Wiley, who was shot by a police officer in Mississippi.

We're seeing these returns to really horrendous racial violence against black people all across the South.

And in terms of the movement for a police accountability, there's a big push for district attorneys for state attorneys to make sure that these cops that commit crimes go behind bars.

That man who shot into a mother's vehicle who went to the store to get her son diapers, deserves to rot in prison.

And I just want us to pay the same attention to this 19-year-old who was in college.

Jace went to be with his friend to record some music and he died that night.

And it's a responsibility of the district attorney's office to stand up not just to crime that happens between people on the street, but also between crime that happens between police and civilians.

No one ever told her that she could, you know, file charges and fight against this police officer because it all happened so fast, and then we were in 2020.

But that's just to say that I do want you to take this case seriously and to take a proper role in looking at it.

You know, we none of us are law professionals, we're civilians who see something wrong and want to try to fight it.

And so that's why we're here today.

That's why I'm taking time out of a day that I would usually be at work to talk to you and to talk to this council.

Because this is a serious issue.

We're not doing this for fun.

We're doing this because we really care.

And if you care to, we want you to stand with us.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have a card from last name, D-I-L-L-A-R-O, 1631 Mary.

Okay.

Followed by Ms.

Scott, who submitted.

Um we have three cards for you, Ms.

Scott.

So we did get your cards.

You'll be next.

Thank you for having allowing me to be here today.

And um, thank you, Jason, for sharing all of your um struggles and achievements.

It is a great thing to see.

Um my friend and roommate of over 25 years, Richie Smith was murdered in front of my house on January 7th, 2023 by my neighbor.

He was the ninth homicide of that year.

So it's been three and a half years, and we are also waiting in the queue, like you mentioned, all the other families, although we really don't know if we're in the queue.

We don't know.

We haven't heard anything from anyone.

Uh we met with the ADA, we met with uh detective Barrera, Sergeant Hyatt, uh Captain Hart, Kevin, I'm sure I don't remember his name in May of 2025, and it's literally been crickets.

Um what I have with me today is an audio recording file.

Uh, the auto recording is public record.

There are no names, it's been edited.

There's no names, there's no date, there's no addresses.

But I want you to hear.

No, I don't know what's the location of grandma, you see?

And I have a person that keeps coming on my stoop and banging on my door, and I am warned and I'm fixing to use it.

So you're on a recorded line.

So I'm here on the line.

And where's your um where's your weapon now?

No weapons on me.

Not sitting on the both the council doctrine, the no, the uh the Stanley Brown and everything else that I can't.

It's a homeless dope hit.

And are you anyone else in danger right now?

Yeah, he's in danger if he comes back across the street.

Or you're on a record, you're you're on a recorded line.

I really don't give a shit.

I am exercising every right that I have.

I'm born and raised Louisiana native, and if the son of a bitch comes back across the street, kicking on my door again, I will put a bullet in his head.

So this is the guy that used to put across the street with me and murdered my name, but no, no, um, um, one guy and basically it just shot like mine.

This is a guy.

Say, standing around, the castle doctor, they're not even murdered.

The same thing this for so many years.

He has a very long time for it.

This guy is out there in somewhere in Texas.

Nobody's doing the summer.

We don't know what's going on.

We're not in the RG dying, nothing like you guys.

I don't know about you.

I have a transplant.

I'm never about myself.

Everybody else that I know that's about this case is in Colorado or California.

There are people in the city who heard about what you have.

You could have good personality.

Thank you.

Thank you, appreciate it.

Next, we're going to hear from any public comments.

I'm sorry, no online comments, Benita.

Ms.

Needle?

Okay, thank you, DA Williams.

We appreciate the presentation.

Next, we're going to hear from the coroner's office.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Yes, Ms.

Scott.

Absolutely.

My name is Shante Scott.

I am the mother of J.

Slee Scott.

Y'all seen me before.

Today I have questions for the uh Arleens Parish District Attorney.

As the victim's mother, I believe your office represented the interests of my son and our family.

Instead, I was left confused and searching for answers.

Why wasn't I fully informed of my rights as a crime victim?

Why wasn't I told that I could seek my own attorney to protect my family's interests?

Why wasn't the criminal process explained to me before major decisions took place in my son's case?

I wasn't informed properly.

No one let me know that Andrew Gantt was going to have a negligent homicide charge or the obstruction of justice.

He said he threw the gun in a body of water.

It was a shock to me.

I didn't have a clue of what was going on.

Now that I later received public request records because I had to search this case for myself.

I see evidence that haven't been logged in.

They have some evidence that's been logged in and some evidence that has not been logged in.

This case was brought to you, the DA because of NOPD.

NOPD came up with the narrative.

NOPD came up with the reports, and then NOPD brought it over to the district attorney's office.

I know there's a lot of cases that y'all deal with.

It was a fast closed and shut case.

Evidence, I'm still asking for records right now.

And I'm asking you now, while we're on record, can I meet with you about getting the public record request of the videos?

NOPD don't want to give me the videos of the interviews or the videos of Suno.

Because that matters in this case.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Miss Scott.

I have a pattern of misconduct, a pattern of line, a pattern of skill, a pattern of murder, and I see in my son.

So that's why I'm coming at you.

I need this case to be reopened and reevaluated and be reviewed.

Thank you, Miss Scott.

Thank you, Miss Scott.

It's not a detrusted.

I'm here for a reading and I can see.

Thank you, Miss Scott.

Up next, we're going to move to the coroner's office.

Dr.

McKenna.

He has gloves on.

He has gloves on.

And you know, PD don't won't give you the video.

And he's saying a record seal.

I have to go and investigate and research and get the video on his out.

He has gloves on his hand.

And he's supposed to kill his best friend.

That's not his best friend.

He had gloves on his hand and he pulled the weapon out from under his shirt.

The same thing we told Robert, my son did, pulled the weapon out.

He owes a weapon out of this.

Dr.

McKenna.

Please re-evaluate the state.

It's going to be in jail first to be murdered.

He had gloves on his hand.

Dr.

McKenna.

Thank you for having me.

I think my office has suffered like everybody's office.

Lack of funding.

We're forced to lay off people.

We're coming in a time with 95 degree heats.

You know the problems with our cooling system.

We can't operate without coolers.

Bodies will rot, stink.

We need new coolers.

I think everybody says we need new ones, but we don't have them.

We keep peace bealing it.

As you all know, the Carter's office does not get a piece of the millage.

Every time we get, we get from the city of New Orleans.

We don't have any excess money.

We have to buy body bags.

We have to buy equipment.

We have to do autopsies.

And I understand that the murder rate is down, but we still have all of the drug deaths, all of the suicides, all of the health, and we handle all of the mental health issues.

So the coroner's office is supposed to work 24-7, right?

We can't close.

We don't know when there's going to be a murder.

Our investigators have to be on target.

We're very concerned about this heat wave that's coming.

And we can't do autopsies unless we keep the place cool.

Our investigators, I'm glad to hear police departments may get their own DNA lab.

That slows up the identification of bodies when we have to go out the city and and wait for DNA testing.

Response time for the police and for us, we get more information if we get to the scenes on time.

I've asked you time and time again to put blue lights on our investigators' calls.

You don't respond.

I see blue lights on Gillard's campus, Xavier's campus, UNO's campus, everywhere.

We on every murder scene.

We're on every traumatic event that we our infant on the scene.

How do we get through crowds in unmarked cars?

How do we get there?

Nobody can move off the street till we get there.

I mean, we're severely short of funds.

I know everybody's telling you the same thing.

But some of these uh officers get a piece of the millage.

We get nothing.

If you don't give it to us, we're not gonna have it.

And I think we've done a Yemen's job uh in getting uh identification of bodies and stuff.

When there's a delay, you know, you got some judges who want to criticize us when we get bad information.

There's nothing I can do about that.

In my term as Carter, we have never misidentified a body.

We have never given the city a false report on what we've done.

Never.

No matter what some misinformed judges gotta say.

And I'm here to tell you.

We like everybody that I know, I'm preaching to the choir.

We need money like everybody else, and we're particularly concerned about this heat wave and our coolers.

And we need a new system, but that's up to you all.

We don't have any money unless you give it to us.

We do not get a piece of the millage.

So you know, you don't know how frustrating it is.

In my public life.

It seems like I'm always begging.

That's not the case in my private life.

I don't beg.

And I got to say that.

That I come here in good faith to give the city what it needs.

And it seems to fall on deaf ears.

And I know y'all got a budget deficit and all of that.

But we do not get a piece of the millage.

Like many of these departments that come to you.

We get nothing.

So you need to take that in consideration when we're looking at them.

We've laid off.

10-15% of the workforce already.

We can't lay off anybody else and give you what you want.

But if you want us to get what we need, I'm not asking for the world.

But response time is important.

Um obviously we gotta do autopsies.

We can't do autopsies if the air conditioning system is broken, and so once again, I'm here doing something I'm very uncomfortable with and ask other people for money.

Because I sure don't do that in my private business world, and um, but this is what I'm charged to do, so I'm here again saying look at our budget, look at what we do, look at all of the stuff we have, 24-7.

So that's it.

I don't I don't have a lot to say.

Thank you, Dr.

Councilmember Green.

Well, I mean, it it goes without saying that we would like to be as supportive as we can.

So when you but when you come to us, you're coming to folks who've taken a 10% salary cut because of referlows.

We also don't have the ability to travel.

I gotta buy my own supplies for my office, whether it be water, soft drinks, or the like, because this budget deficit is real.

I hope that we can all come together and recognize that the city of New Orleans has an $800 million general fund, and the state of Louisiana has a 47 billion dollar budget.

47 billion versus 800 million.

Let's say you want to call our budget 1.1 or 2 billion because we have some federal monies which are going away.

We have tremendous challenges, and I know that you know this, but you gotta ask, you know.

But I just want to let you know it's not falling on deaf ears, it's falling on the ears of people who have taken very serious salary cuts on thrill over.

And so at the end of the day, we would love to do anything that we could to restore salaries to get the people that we've lost because the mayor's office, for example, has a lot fewer, um, a lot fewer employees, if you will, who are unclassified than in the past, those positions are unfilled.

But I understand I understand Dr.

McKenna.

At the end of the day, but I just think it's my responsibility to show you what we do with it, and I know it all, and I know all of the constraints you're operating with, but at the same time, I have to come here and tell you what I'm facing, what my needs are, given all the restraints that your budget has, this is existential, this is real, and so I'm here.

I know, but one and I one thing about coming to these meetings, you just heard the DA before you say he got cut 500,000 by the and I understand that.

The fact remains is I gotta tell you what my problems are, I gotta tell you what my constraints are, I gotta tell you what my needs are.

I gotta tell you if you want my um response time increased, and we get to the steeds if they want the evidence, the quicker they get the case, all that depends on that nothing happens till we get to the scene of a crime.

Nobody can move nothing, everything starts in the coroner's office.

Keep that in mind, that if we don't get there, that body lives on the street, and if we got a body in New Orleans East and we got one across the river, we got a problem.

We gotta move.

So take that and make it easier for us to do our job.

I'm not asking for millions.

There's a blue light that the people can get around, give us give us air conditioning so we don't just don't walk out there because they can't work.

Well, Dr.

McKenna, we are our seeing I don't I don't know if it's uh something that the council can approve with the blue lights.

I'll talk to the city attorney's office, CAO's office.

Um I've heard your concerns before about the blue lights.

I will also tell you that not to uh you know put your issues against someone else's, but the Ford District Police Station Algiers doesn't have an AC on a second floor.

We just heard the sixth district, they're having issues.

The DA's office, the criminal court judges, the uh do they have dead bodies in the police department?

Do they have this dead bodies in the criminal district court?

Do they have dead bodies in the criminal justice system office?

We have dead bodies that will rot without air conditioning.

I think that's a bit different.

I'm not saying there's no.

I know, but but the critical need of the coroner's office, and I understand that you don't want to sit a police officer in a hot room or anybody in a hot room.

We can't do that.

I understand.

These are dead bodies, they wouldn't they will disintegrate unless we have the cooling system working properly.

So I understand the the police defending might be, but there are no dead bodies laying in a police station.

There's no dead bodies laying in the city hall.

There's no bodies laying in the criminal justice system on a criminal court building.

We can't work without this.

Please understand, don't make that comparison.

I know the fiscal comparison is necessary, but not the urgency of the situation.

It's totally different thing.

The fiscal comparison and the urgency that the coroner's office needs to do the job I have been elected to do.

And I got four more years to do it.

And I'm here for four more years, and I have to state my case.

But please, please understand our urgencies versus your constraints in your budget, and I clearly get that.

Councilman Green, Councilman King.

I know the constraint, but I still have to come here and tell you what my needs are.

I'm good.

Thank you, Dr.

Dr.

McKenzie.

Any online comments?

Uh hearing none, no public comments, no comments.

We have one comment.

Wait up.

Yes, ma'am.

And when you finish, please pull out a uh comment card for the record.

Thank you.

I did one, and I also submitted a copy of my report of what I'm speaking on.

Okay.

The floor is George.

Good morning, and thank you for allowing me to speak.

My name is Yolanda Hayes LeVeg McPherson.

I'm a lifelong resident of New Orleans.

I was raised here, I was educated here, and I have spent more than 30 years serving this community as a registered nurse and a health care leader.

Today, I stand before you not as a health care provider, but as a mother.

My daughter, Danielle LeVeg, lost her life under circumstances that I still do not fully understand.

Her body was found on February 22nd of 2021.

Her cell phone was found with her, and her last text message was to me only hours before her body was discovered.

Yet I was not properly notified of her death.

To this day, I still have unanswered questions about proper identification procedures, where I was not given any notification as her mother, and that communication was very limited.

The way this case was handled has caused me profound emotional harm.

Losing my daughter was traumatic enough.

I am here today because I do not believe that I am the only parent who has experienced this.

Families deserve timely notification, clear communication, transparency, and meaningful voices throughout the process when their loved ones become victims of a crime or a suspicious death.

Today, I am represent I am respectfully asking this committee to consider strengthening protocols for family identification and notification, improving communication and coordination between the New Orleans Police Department, the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office, and the district attorney's office.

Ensuring that victims' families are notified when significant prosecutorial decisions are being made.

So good afternoon.

Good afternoon, council members, and thank you all for allowing us to come today to provide an update on the clerk of courts office's criminal records division.

The first page of the presentation shows the areas that we intend to cover during our presentation today, which includes correspondence, office resource flyers, exemplified copies, which are commonly known as acts of Congress, record storage, the Supreme Court numbers, appeals, expungements, staffing, and technology.

So the first slide shows that as we talk about correspondence, we're going to be talking about mail receipt correspondence and mail intake notices.

So one of the things that we were able to determine when we came on board was that the clerk's office on the criminal records division received a number of pieces of mail.

However, there was not a return communication necessarily to the person who sent the letter.

So the sample that you see in your packet is a form letter that we created for those who are requesting postconviction relief in their letter.

And I say sample because we created additional form letters as well.

The point of this letter is to increase access to justice and transparency and information.

Because if someone sends us a letter asking for postconviction relief, what the office did in the past was forwarded to the court section, which is the process because it is the judge that makes the decision about post-conviction relief.

But the person who sent the letter did not know one, that their letter was received by the office, or two, what happened to their letter.

So they were not always able to follow up on what those next steps needed to be.

So providing the person with this letter tells them that their letter was received by the clerk's office.

It tells them that their information was forwarded to the section of court that it needed to, so as they want to follow up on their case, they are empowered to do so because they have that information.

So that's one of the changes, improvements that we have been able to make within the criminal records division of the clerk's office.

The next page references office resources.

So people come into the clerk's office in the criminal records division just as they do in civil and land records, wanting information about other governmental agencies.

In the civil and land records divisions, we already had a flyer that we're able to hand people that lists resources such as free legal services, different departments within the city, 311.

Oftentimes people are coming to the clerk's office, particularly the land records division, and needed assessors information.

So we took that strategy and looked at frequently asked questions within the criminal records division.

And we created the flyer that you see on the next slide.

So you'll see that flyer includes information for the District Attorney's Office, information for the public defender's office, probation parole, and several other offices that people came in to ask about frequently.

So we have this information posted and readily available in an office so that when people come, there's not confusion about what information they need to receive in order to address their matter.

We have a flyer that's already prepared and easily available to them to be able to take their next steps.

And an exemplified copy is typically called an act of Congress.

What that means, if you look on the next page, you'll see a sample of that.

I revise that form as well as the procedure that's being used.

So an exemplified copy has three sections to it.

The first section is signed by me as clerk, stating that the document that would be attached to it is a true and correct copy of what is in the court record.

The second section is signed by a judge, verifying that I am the clerk.

The third section is signed by me as clerk verifying that that last signature was an actual judge.

Because for different reasons, particularly with travel abroad, people have requested exemplified copies.

And it was something that is also requested in terms of copies of the court record for the civil division.

So what I was able to do is look at the process that we were using in our civil division, update and adapt the form to be able to use for the criminal division.

Excuse me one moment.

And since that very paragraph states that I'm verifying that it is a part of the court record, immediately I requested the documentation, learned that the documentation had not been filed into the court record because of some prior issues between the offices, required that it be presented, got it filed, and was able to complete the process.

So each subsequent time we've received the request for an exemplified copy, we have received the pleadings along with it.

Either they've been filed already, and we're able to make the copy and sign the form, or if they have not been filed, we properly filed them into the court record so we can comply with the legal process in order to make the exemplified copy.

And I just want to be clear that this is just a sampling of the things that we have done.

Time would not permit us to share everything that we have done during these last eight weeks.

So the next thing that we have to present to you is regarding record storage.

With my 20 plus year history of record storage within the civil and land records divisions of the clerk of courts office, we came in with a lot of knowledge about what needed to happen and how things needed to be done.

We have a conservation department, which is charged with ensuring that records continue to be available.

We have documents that date back to the 1700s, which are still made available to the to the public and are used in the office.

As many of you all know, we put those documents on display as another mechanism for transparency and to teach people what we do at your clerk's office and how they can use those records.

So when we flip to the next page of the slides, you will see we have highlighted three areas integrity, upholding the law with fairness and accountability in every action we take on behalf of the people of Arleens Parish, service, serving the community with care, efficiency, and respect, making court records and processes accessible to all, and trust, maintaining public confidence through transparency, accuracy, and consistent delivery of essential civic services, because we understand the critical nature of what we do.

I continue and have always said to my team members, we are not paper pushers.

Everything that we do impacts someone's life.

When someone needs a copy of their records from criminal court, that is the most important thing to that person.

When someone needs information for elections, who's running, where do they go to qualify, whether they go to vote, that is important to that person.

When someone needs a copy of their child support order or their succession matter, that's important.

When someone wants a copy of their act of sale or wants to file a cancellation of their mortgage because they're so proud to have paid it off, that's important.

We impact people's everyday lives at your clerk of court's office.

So let's talk about record storage.

And to do that, we have a short video for you, which we are going to narrate through as it goes on.

So what you see before you write down are some pipes in one of the buildings that the staff occupies, as well as record storage for property and evidence.

Well, they get the video queued up, there is an issue with it loading because of the size of it.

Let me tell you all what's on the video so you'll know what you see.

This video is a snippet of some of the things that we have encountered in terms of the physical facility and the maintenance of records housed within the criminal records division.

You are going to see in the first portion of the video, rooms that have mold and mildew around the doorway, so you know as you go in the room where the items are being stored, it is not being maintained at the correct temperature and humidity levels.

We know from our experience with the civil division that the standard for record storage just in terms of paper is approximately 70 degrees.

They are sitting in plastic bins and in trash bags in the hallway in an area that the staff walks past every day.

So you will be able to see in the video where we move the weapons to so that they are properly stored, and you will be able to see where we move the weapons from.

Now, the last thing that you will see in that video is another storage container that is filled to the brim with at least records.

And I say at least records because when you see the pictures and video inside of the storage container, we could not walk all the way to the back of it.

The storage container is outside in this 90 plus 100 plus degree heat.

I cannot tell you as we sit here right now how long those items have been in the storage container, but I'm sure because I have my chief deputy Alex Irvin, who was already with me, and our senior deputy Ed Lombard per him that they were there before four years ago.

One of the employees said he thinks it was there when he came back in 2016.

So I've heard various dates, but I haven't seen documentation yet.

But what I do want is for you all to know that it exists and it is in there today.

The storage bin is filled with mold from the inner ceiling to the doorway and everything in between.

And it has been verified that it is mold because when I went into the bin, I had two of my conservation technicians come in with me because over the years we've been able to develop the expertise of people who could do some basic preliminary assessments.

And so they were able to determine that the mold was active.

Now, one of the things that the video does not give you the benefit of is the smell.

Because as soon as you start opening the bin, when you get close enough to it, you can begin to smell the deterioration of the paper and whatever else is inside of it.

So we absolutely wanted to make sure that you all were aware.

We are still in the stages of assessing the operations of the office.

But that is significant, and it is going to take a significant amount of work to address both what's in the storage container, what came from the landfill that hasn't been treated, in addition to the other things that we've already discussed.

And keep in mind these are the highlights.

I guess you have to hold on to guns forever.

Or what do you need?

You need a space, a warehouse, or just what do you need?

Okay.

So the answer to that question is multifaceted.

The short answer is short-term need is a climate control facility in order to properly maintain the records, the property and evidence, and all of those things.

The other side of that is the stuff that has already been filled with mold and the landfill.

Now, that's the stuff that I've seen outside.

I'm not saying to you, like the room that I went to that has the mold around the doorframe when you walk into it, I can't tell you that that stuff doesn't need to be remediated as well.

So short term is going to be a combination of appropriate climate control storage and the need to assess what kinds of remediation treatments the existing stuff that we know is in a bad condition needs, and then to assess ongoing.

With our civil records, particularly the older ones, we already have an ongoing assessment process.

The way that paper works is not that you assess it one day and then that's it.

The assessment is ongoing.

One of the things that we do right now with our land records documents, for our oldest documents, we have supplemental air conditioning units built into the ceiling because of the needs for the delicate nature of the paper for that age.

So most immediate climate control storage, which is what I did discuss with Michael Harrison, the deputy mayor for public safety.

Separately, remediation of the things that are in the bin and were pulled from the landfill, and then be able to establish a longer term plan to assess the other items.

Did that answer your question?

Yeah.

But so you're saying that you can remediate where you are now.

I mean, where the storage is now, is that better than looking at a new facility?

Oh, a new facility is the answer.

Because you can't remediate where the stuff is stored now because you can't put it back in there.

Once you take it out, you can't put it back in there, because essentially the entire environment where, like the storage bin, for example, that entire environment is no longer viable.

So if we take boxes out, treat the stuff that's in the boxes, and you don't treat the bin, then you're just putting it back in an environment where it's already infested with mold, you are re-infesting those documents.

And being in a hot and humid climate, we have mold spores all around us every day.

It is the heat and the humidity that can cause them to be activated, which is why you have to monitor temperature when you are talking about how to house and storage and store documents and paper.

And I also have the conservation team doing research on what temperatures are necessary for things like guns, clothing, blood evidence, and all of those sorts of things to ensure that we know what those protocols are so that we can adhere to them.

I feel like we're giving defense attorneys a lot that suggests that maybe our records, I mean our storage is a little troubled.

So what's the long, what's the short-term plan?

The short term plan is one we're starting to learn that it exists, and then to start identifying what needs to happen.

So it's not at this juncture a defense attorney issue, because we're not talking about, we shouldn't be talking about records that we use today.

However, I have the staff checking the list of where records are housed so that we can know the answer to that question.

And if we did need to retrieve one of those records today, I would have my conservation team come and treat it, they would be able to clean a one-off.

They wouldn't be able to clean an entire bin.

Even when we went in the bin, I had my conservation team, myself, I had some of the criminal division staff so that we could move stuff around.

Literally, it took more than one person just to open the door on the bin because the polls that keep the bin closed are bent because apparently the storage container has been moved before.

So it took more than one person to open it.

And what I did, because I have already the knowledge from my years of experience with maintaining documents, I bought the white suits, eye masks, gloves with gloves, the plastic gloves, so that they could be wiped, the facial masks with the respirators on them to ensure that the staff was not being exposed to anything they shouldn't have been, because again, we did not know what we were walking into until that door opened.

Okay.

So right now we're dealing with paper.

And so paper is something that you can clean and remediate as it relates to the storage bin and as it relates to what I've seen so far from opening the plastic bins, the smaller ones, from the things that came out of the landfill.

So that's the I guess more detailed answer to the question that you asked.

Okay.

The video is still trying to load.

We'll email.

Well, we can't email it to you.

We'll bring it to you on the flash drive.

Because it's too large.

We tried emailing it, we tried the upload process because we were able to run it.

Um, but it is critical that you see the video, because it is one thing for me to sit here and describe this to you.

It is another thing for you to be able to see it for yourself.

And I am available anytime you all are available to walk you through how the different things are housed and stored at the clerk's office, because there are variations in that storage as well.

The next is the Supreme Court numbers.

So we've all heard a great deal about the numbers that the clerk of criminal court division has submitted in it.

Well, the clerk of criminal court's office in the past has submitted to the Supreme Court, and that there were discrepancies or differences, or whatever the different terms were in terms of how cases were counted.

So last week I learned that for the year 2026, the monthly reports have not been submitted from January.

The monthly reports for 2026 to the Supreme Court have not been submitted.

So Peter Gilberty, who is the person that handles those matters, I called him and I was able to do that because, of course, I dealt with him for the civil division matters because the civil division submits a monthly report to the Supreme Court.

So we were able to get from him the definitions that he needed for each of the fields.

We were able to look at the case management system, which is the software that the office implemented in November 2025, compare the two, and then comparing the two, that generated additional questions on my part.

And this is why.

Because looking at the form that the Supreme Court used for case count, they are counting what is labeled criminal case.

Within the clerk's office for the criminal records division, there are two kinds of cases.

There's a magistrate case and there's a criminal case.

There's no blank on the form to count the magistrate cases.

So this is how that works.

A person first comes into the system, they're established with the magistrate case, then the district attorney makes a decision as to whether or not to accept the charges.

If those charges are accepted, then that person transitions to a criminal case.

If the charges are not accepted, then it ends at the magistrate level.

Now, this is why that concerns me, because that means the clerk's office has performed work on that magistrate case, which is not counted in these numbers.

The court has performed work on those magistrate cases, which are not counted in those numbers.

So part of what I have to do now is contact Peter Gilberty and find out how those things get accounted for because it also could lead to certain charges not being counted.

Because when you first get arrested and go before a magistrate, you could have three charges, let's say.

So that means the clerk's office has entered three charges, the judge has reviewed three charges, but then the DA may only accept one.

So on the charge count on the report that goes to the Supreme Court, it's looking for the charges associated with the criminal case.

So what happens to the charges that were associated and addressed with the magistrate case?

Those numbers aren't reflected on what I saw.

Again, these are us just assessing the office, learning this information, recognizing that it is going to take more research and follow-up, because I'll be calling Peter Gilberty and saying this is the circumstance.

Tell me how we are supposed to be accounting for the rest of these duties and responsibilities that have been performed by both the clerk and the court so that we can make sure that the numbers are more accurate.

The next item is appeals, and I want to take you to that second page, that next page.

So you will see there are two sections that are reflected on this next slide.

One is how to prepare the appeal, and the other is an incomplete certificate.

Again, this is a sampling of what we've done.

It's not all that we've done as it relates to appeals.

So one of the things that came to my attention is that the clerk's office started preparing appeals in November of 2025.

Prior to November of 2025, the judicial administrator's office prepared the appeals.

I don't know why that history exists as appeals are a clerk's office function, and I have extensive experience with appeals because we have appeals from civil cases that go to the Fourth Circuit.

At this point, we are lodging those appeals on the civil side with the Fourth Circuit electronically.

The criminal records division is not ready to do that yet.

Where we are with the criminal records division is I sat down with the team that are doing appeals and reviewed their processes, the label that goes on the outside of the record jacket that's going to the appellate court was not correct.

It did not contain some information that is specifically listed and required in the law.

The law requires you to have an alphabetical list and a chronological list.

Only the chronological list was being done.

And I don't go into any of this making assumptions.

I mean, I know what I know, and then I verify because I want to make sure if there is a criminal law that is a counterpart to what I already know on the civil side that we are looking for that.

And we have done that, and one of those things came up as we talk about the incomplete certificate.

The staff was not preparing incomplete certificates.

Traditionally, this happens when the clerk's office has prepared the record and they're waiting on transcript from the court reporter.

So the clerk's office is supposed to lodge, meaning file the record with the appellate court and bring along with it an incomplete certificate that identifies what is not included, which traditionally would be transcript.

What the criminal record staff was doing was holding the appeal, waiting for the transcript.

So the way that manifests is that the appeal was lodged late.

So when you look at the number of times, because that information is also reported in those numbers that we've all been discussing over these last few months, it reflects when appeals are lodged late.

So the record is ready, but the staff wasn't lodging it because they thought they could not without the transcript.

Well, that's incorrect.

The law allows for you to lodge it, and the law says you're supposed to send the incomplete certificate.

So we created an incomplete certificate based on modifying the certificate that we use in the civil division, and so we have begun that process with the appellate cases.

Another thing that I noticed is we were receiving all of these supplemental orders from the Fourth Circuit to submit exhibits and other kinds of evidence.

In meeting with the staff, they were under the impression that you didn't send exhibits to the appellate court.

You waited for them to ask for it.

So my question was okay, well, show me the law that says you have to wait because every law that I've seen said it all needs to go at one time.

So, of course, there was no law that said that you had to wait, it was practice and custom.

So I was able to contact Justin Woods, who is the clerk of court at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal.

Clearly, we already had a relationship with each other from the civil division and ask him directly look, is there something that you all want?

Is the staff not supposed to be sending us this because there's no law that says we're supposed to wait?

And he said to me, No, he had not heard of that.

So we are packaging those items up.

He did say that there are certain items that they don't want immediately because it requires a certain kind of storage, so he would rather me wait on those items before we sent it, and he is going to send me that in writing so that way we can ensure that we are complying with the law and with the preference of the Fourth Circuit.

Next is expungements.

So when you look at the expungement process, and that's always an item that is hot on discussion in multiple places, it's something that's discussed at the clerks' meetings all the time at the clerks' institutes where the educational training is done, and amongst the community, because people want to be able to clear their record once they have completed their process.

So one of the things that I looked at in terms of the expungement process, so I got a basic training from the staff, and then a woman came in who needed some assistance, stopped me in the hallway.

So when we went into the office, I already knew that we needed to pull the docket master to determine her charges.

But she said to me, there's one particular charge that's on my record that is preventing me from getting a job.

She knew she had multiple, but she was most concerned about that one.

And since there's a fee associated with it, she wanted to prioritize what was going to happen.

In assisting her and having the docket master pulled, we determined that she had three charges under one date of birth and two charges under another date of birth.

So the universe that she was working with for her expungement process was three, but it was really five.

And having a better understanding of the system and taking the time for us to be able to do the full research for a person helps them be able to better handle their process, whichever one it is they want to work with.

So then that brings me to expungement day.

So Judge Lombard and Judge Holmes met with me because they're doing an expungement day on July 9th, and basically that means that they were able to work with partners to get funds and opportunity for people to be able to get their expungements done at a reduced or no cost, depending on whatever arrangements they were able to make with the funders, the people who are going to provide the money.

How that impacts the clerk's office is that means that we will have an influx of people coming in to request expungement packets because they will need that information that I just discussed, researched and prepared by June, July 11th, so that they can have their matter completed going through that process.

So in partnership with them, what I suggested and what we have done as the clerk's office, we've set time aside Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday from 8 a.m.

to 11 a.m.

to have a triage desk, if you will, focused on assisting people to get their expungement packets for the expungement day that's going to happen July 11th.

So we reallocated some of the resources within the office in order to have that focus three times a week during those office hours, including using the summer employees that we have because it's an opportunity for them to learn another process with a goal to create a foundation for the summer staff as they come on board with the office.

We want them to learn something and we want to benefit from what they've learned while they're there.

So next is staffing.

We are still assessing the staffing in the office, but we know today that the office is understaffed, and I'm going to give you an example of that.

We know that the office is understaffed because I have one person right now who is a supervisor who is also working two of the stations that he is supposed to be supervising and assisting with elections.

So if that one person leaves the office, I have four vacancies.

So we already know that the office is understaffed.

The staff that works in the criminal records division day to day are also the same staff that is working election work at night.

So for example, last week I added three classes for poll commissioners.

We trained them for May 16th.

I wanted them to have additional training for the June 27th just so that we can make sure that everything was good.

So the staff from the Criminal Records Division worked from 8 to 4 when the office is open to the public for criminal records, and then they work from 4 until approximately 7 30, helping train poll commissioners.

The election day Saturday starts at 6 a.m.

and runs roughly until 11.30 or so whenever we are finished.

So the same people that were working already Monday through Friday from 8 to 4 are working those additional hours during an election cycle.

And clearly, this last couple of months, we've had two election days, May 16th and June 27th, where this has occurred.

So in order to ensure efficiency in both the criminal records operations and the elections operations, we will need additional people.

So then the next item is technology.

So as I said, the office implemented new technology, a case management system in November 2025.

To this point, I've attended some of the meetings with the partners, including the bus, where all of the meetings from the criminal justice partners are being filtered together and then redisseminated to whichever departments are necessary.

So in doing that, we're looking at, and I've also met with Nathaniel Weaver, and I have other appointments scheduled throughout this process.

So one of the things that I saw is that the clerk's office staff is receiving emails at various times of the day and night and weekend to make corrections to data.

So this is what I mean by that.

And it's all urgent.

Because if a person is sitting in magistrate court and their name is misspelled, that needs to be corrected in order for them to be able to move through the rest of the system.

If a person is sitting waiting to be brought to magistrate court, but they are not listed as a defendant in the system, then we don't even know that they're there in order to add them to the list.

And so the sheriff and I had a meeting about some other things, and we addressed that as well because what we're finding is some of the partners' information needs to be corrected on the front end.

So this is an example.

So the sheriff's office person called my person and said, this person's not in the system, we need them added.

And I said, Well, hold up, because we need to ask more questions, right?

By the time I sat down with the sheriff, it was determined that when the person was arrested, their name wasn't added to the system.

So it wasn't a correction that the sheriff's office needed to make, it was actually a correction that the arresting agency needed to make, but the way the bus goes, information comes in.

So even if they updated it, the updated information still would not reach us, which is something that I asked Nathaniel Weaver about and they're going to look into.

But what it does mean is that clerk's office staff is making corrections on the fly, right?

Which is not a good process or procedure.

It is necessary at the moment, so that the person can move along in the system, but it is something that needs to be resolved in terms of what is the correct process in order to do that.

There's going to have to be some kind of court order, court interference, or the DA's office, or this bus system be updated.

So when the party responsible for the information makes the update, they can make the correction and then it updates to our system.

Am I making sense?

Okay.

Technology was the last item on our list, so we thank you all very much for allowing us to provide that update.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Councilman Green, Councilman Harris, any questions?

No.

Everything that you said didn't make sense, except I don't understand how someone can be arrested and then the information not be entered into the system by the arresting agency, whether it be federal, state, or local conducting the arrest, what happens?

Where's the myth?

Okay.

So I haven't seen this for myself.

I'm gonna tell you what I was told.

Okay.

I was told that there was a process before where the arresting officer had to stay at the sheriff's office and wait to verify that a person was entered into the system.

The sheriff's office would have an opportunity to check it before the arresting officer moved on.

As I understand it, that's inconsistent.

So then the person ends up at the sheriff's office, and at a certain time of day, there's magistrate court in the morning and in the afternoon.

So everybody who's waiting to have a first appearance gets brought from the sheriff's office to the court in order to be seen.

So a person, if they were not processed properly through each aspect of the system, could be brought over and they not show up on the clerk's office side because the information was not entered and therefore did not properly flow through the process.

As to specifically why that could occur, I don't know the answer to that question.

Because at the point that I'm dealing with it, it's already not there.

Well, when someone is brought in by an arresting officer, and I'm gonna talk to you about it afterwards, but it's only because you brought it up.

For the person to arrive at the sheriff's office, someone has taken information that they plugged in somewhere.

What am I missing?

I mean, how could you not missing it?

Are you telling me it's as simple as that?

Somebody didn't plug it in.

I mean, it's a person.

I'm not gonna tell you that's a simple thing because I don't know how simple or difficult it is for the person that's responsible for producing that information.

But the outcome is as you described it.

But I can't tell you if it's simple or not.

They would have to answer that question.

I'll talk to you about it more.

It's almost seeming as if a human being gets lost in the system, right?

Is it as simple as that?

I mean, they just get lost in the system.

Yes.

I don't know.

Well, what I can tell you is, then the gun storage.

Council member, what I can tell you is this.

They're not lost at the point that they hit the clerk's office because we add them into the system, so then they're able to move along through the process.

Okay.

It could be the person who's taking the information, not taking it correctly.

I didn't hear correctly.

I typed something wrong.

When the person first enters the system at the arrest, I mean after the arrest when they come into the prison.

It'd be a lot of things.

I can understand the typos, but it sounds as if there's no record beyond typo.

I don't care if the name is misspelled or even the street is misspelled or the crime is misspelled.

It just seems curious to me that um there wouldn't be a safety valve or mechanism up front so that you don't have to ask on a clerk's level basically who is this.

I don't know.

I'm trying to make it as simple a question as I can because I find that a little bit challenging.

It's not on you, or your end.

You didn't do it because once they get to the clerk's office, all the sense.

We have we have arrests made by local, state, federal um partners.

Um I'll try to find out more from you.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Consumer McGready.

Any online comments, Mr.

Neita?

Any public comments?

Well, no, I'm I'm sorry.

I actually did what have one other question, and it's on me because I look like I was finished.

But now with the um additional responsibilities that have been given have been given to your office to try to mimic what's going on in the state.

Um, in other jurisdictions, the financing of the offices comes from a lot of the fees that are collected.

Um you've heard the criminal court judges express that um there could be more concerns.

How do you address the criminal district court judges and what your office can do to help them with this consolidation?

There's no relationship between how that functions by law.

So the law would have to be changed.

Yeah, there's there's no relationship between how those things function.

Well, how do you so there?

So, I'm sorry.

You know, I I actually meant the I'm sorry, the clerk's function.

I'm sorry, and I did say judges, didn't I?

Right.

That's take that back.

Anybody who's listening, I meant to say the consolidation of the clerks' offices um, you know, under your responsibilities.

Um, are there any concerns that we have relative to the financing of the criminal side?

We're still working through what, so Act 15 transfer duties, functions, and responsibilities to the clerk of civil district court's office.

The legislation does not reflect consolidated.

And Act 15 lays out specifically how those criminal duties and responsibilities are continue to be financed.

What I can tell you today is we're still going through and determining what the costs are associated with that office because there's not one set of information that says what it is because there's a relationship with the city, and we did meet with the CAO's office last week to start understanding that process and what those requirements and those kinds of things are.

So we're just scratching the surface.

Right.

I didn't ask the question correctly, but that's kind of what I was getting at.

Yeah, in other parishes, of course.

It's um I guess a judicial fund or something, the collection of funds that funds the criminal and the civil matters.

Um we've been it's been suggested that you have reserves that might be able to be um of assistance, but is there anything that we should be concerned about as a city?

The legislation lays out how those responsibilities and duties are supposed to be funded.

And it involves the city, it involves the city coming up with more money.

Okay, I've been beating around the bush.

I don't know what the state is doing.

Where do you think we have all of this money?

Now, so now I'll tell you what I was trying to ask in a more diplomatic way.

And it's continuing my argument.

Where are all these notions that the city has the ability to assume all these costs coming from?

I'll leave it at that.

That's not for you to know the answer.

That's not an answer for you, but um uh sometimes I just use too many words.

At the end of the day, it's yet another example of something that's gonna be imposed upon the city that we don't have an idea of how much it's going to be, but it's a responsibility that the state has put on us.

That's all.

You don't have to comment on that.

I think my message is clear on that one, you know.

Thank you for the um presentation.

The thoroughness of it is greatly appreciated.

This is the first time that I've had an opportunity to have this thorough report from your office.

But um, I do want to you since you brought up the electoral process, um, I do want to applaud your office relative to the conducting of the last couple of elections.

Thank you.

We appreciate it.

Okay.

Thank you better.

Thank you.

Next, Josh Shay.

All right, Judge.

Uh, would have you ready?

Yes, and you good afternoon.

You're showing me.

All right, thank you.

Um, good afternoon.

Thank you for having us here.

Uh, for record, my name is uh Judge Mark Shay.

I preside over division D.

To my left is Marie Karen.

She is a director of the community court, uh municipal and traffic court.

So I just like to quote Billy Shakespeare before we get started.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

So which means I promise you I'll be fast.

We are fortunate.

Uh I've listened today to a lot of agencies talk about uh needs and stuff, but um, you know, as you know, we got a brand new building.

Yeah.

Uh it has some deficiencies, but in the grand scheme of things, it's it's brand spanking new, the air conditioning works, and uh we thank the city for for funding it and getting it built.

So, but before we um go further, I we kind of think we're gonna reverse up.

We're gonna let Marie go first and talk about community court.

I'll talk about some of the basic things and then we'll finish with the online case resolution.

Okay, but I promise you we'll we'll be quick.

It's getting late in the afternoon.

And just one more thing, Councilmember, I would ask, you're a baseball fan, right?

Some degree, yeah.

Yeah, I would just ask that that that you keep us from the bottom of the line of it, maybe put us at cleanup next time so we can get in and out a little quicker.

We'll we'll put you at the top of the lineup next time.

We want to get our judges in and out.

So we'll make sure that you criminal court and juvenile at the top.

Right, thank you very much.

All right, Marie.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Marie Karen, Director of Community Court, and I'll keep it brief as well.

I know I've presented to you before uh and members of the council.

Uh so for the last two years we've been operational at municipal and traffic court.

We work with people who come through our court who have low-level misdemeanors and need help for with their social service needs.

So in this in the past two years, we've screened over uh twelve hundred people for our program.

Uh we've had served over 600, and then just this year alone, we've had 148 people who have come through and we've connected them to social workers.

Some of the top charges that people are uh coming into our court with include theft, trespassing, property damage, disturbing the peace, noise complaints.

Uh this is from the end of 2025, this data, but it remains the same to date that these are more or less the top charges.

As it might not surprise you that these are charges that result when people do not have their basic needs met.

For example, trespassing might be someone who is unhoused and sleeping outside, maybe somewhere they shouldn't be disturbing the peace.

That could be someone who is dealing with some sort of trauma or emotional dysregulation of some type, um, and things go a little awry and they come through our court.

What do we do?

We address the root causes of that behavior.

We connect them with social workers.

Here are some of the most common needs that we will find upon assessment.

So you can see, and let me also add, these are broken down individually, but it wouldn't surprise you that over half of our people have co-occurring needs, so uh they might have a flag for mental health, but also also have housing needs.

So we get people in, it's uh we provide their, we address their needs depending on what their most significant need is.

Tuesday we address housing, Wednesday's job and skills, Thursday's behavioral health, and the city attorney looks upon work with us favorably for their case resolution.

This is new.

This next piece I'm showing you.

Our partners at the Justice Management Institute, JMI helped us break down and analyze the recidivism data for the car the court, uh writ large, but then also for our program.

What this shows us, and you can see it here in these two graphs the recidivism rate.

So people who are coming in with two or more cases, three or more cases for municipal and traffic court, you can see it's about 20% over the course of five years.

Uh we might have repeat offenders for community court.

That's 47%.

This is exciting to me because it shows for the first time that we are targeting the right people.

We've got the right people in our program, people who are uh behaving in such a way that it's resulting in these public disorder, uh public safety um offenses.

We've got them here to provide services.

This is another graph showing the same information essentially in a different form.

This is over the course of two years.

You can really see the breakaway.

With this, we can start to track our efficacy and show that what I truly and deeply believe is a social worker, you connect people to the uh the services that they need, and things will go more smoothly in their life.

We won't see them again, and that's what we'll be able to track uh more efficiently.

Other updates really quickly.

Our presiding judge, Chief Judge Robert uh E.

Jones is uh stepping down at the end of this year.

So we'll have a leadership transition within the court.

We're very lucky that a number of judges are interested, and so I'm excited for the future of community court.

Um, we're gonna have it's gonna look different, and we're gonna figure out what it will be, and it's gonna be great.

Uh funding and staffing.

We have applied to two federal grants uh this year to support our staffing pattern as it is, which is right now we're completely staffed.

Uh we have a full team of social workers, there's five of us.

If we do not get those grants, that is our that is a problem.

We'll have to uh find solutions for because it's we're only funded through the end of the year.

Exactly.

So we'll be we'll be speaking in more depth in a month or so, but uh that's that's where we stand in terms of that significant piece.

And that's it for me, unless you all have questions at all.

Any questions in Marie before I move on?

Council member Green.

All right, so just to kind of finish up, um, based on what uh you you learned today from uh uh Captain Mishu is that um their traffic enforcement has increased considerably, which means that the amount of filings in our court has increased as well because all traffic uh violations come to traffic in municipal court.

So that means that I think we had a uh 25,000 or so filings last year, and he's written 16,000 so far this year, so we hope to exceed uh the 25,000 filings that's municipal and traffic court combined.

Um, just one more thing that I'd like to just talk about, which we have talked about is the OCR, which is an acronym for online case resolution that's nearing completion of the build.

We started at four years ago.

Uh Kalamuna was the company that um was contracted through us through a grant through the ARPA funds that uh uh they think in September, October it's gonna be a full rollout.

We've we meet weekly.

Uh it's really impressive as to what what this is gonna be able to increase access for the public to hopefully reduce um failure to appears.

You know, just to give you a quick recap.

It's a quick read code on the back of the ticket.

Uh people will use that to access our system.

They'll register and they'll be able to talk to a prosecutor either through uh a defended portal or they can hire an attorney through an attorney portal where they can share information and hopefully uh have their case resolved prior to or in lieu of coming down to traffic court four and five times to resolve their traffic matter.

We are a pilot court.

There's five other pile of courts across the nation.

So uh I'm also in a national working group.

We've also been recognized internationally through our OCR uh work, and hopefully, uh it's through an open source platform, which means that we can't sell it, nor can the people that built it, so it's free for anybody who wants to use it.

So that was important in in our our initial contractual uh uh constraints that it had to be open source.

So um we're almost there.

I think by the end of the year it should be up and running full time, and hopefully you can get a chance to come see and watch it work.

And I invite both of you to come back and see the new building.

I know uh council member Harris came when we had that low check um sharing, but uh, we would go for the uh both of us were through there.

The ribbon cutting when you uh we uh cut the ribbon on it.

Oh, right, y'all were there.

I really forgot.

I forgot, y'all were there.

Very nice.

I apologize.

You know, I'm getting old.

My memories, you know, I have a hard time remembering what I had for breakfast yesterday, much less six months ago.

So thank you.

Right.

Okay.

Any questions?

No questions.

Um, we know it's a tough job.

Everyone has cuts, but I will say that the uh municipal and traffic court is a very, very important piece to the overall quality of life in the city because a lot of people don't realize those dev charges, those petty, which seem to be petty dove charges, those seem to be petty traffic court uh charges or disturbing the peace, they they come to you.

Right.

And that's that's very important to a lot of our people who come to quality of life.

And that's why community court's so important, Councilmember, because it what the idea was that putting them back into the system was not they were just a revolving door.

So, we're trying to get to the underlying cause of why they they maybe keep uh stealing or or what you know, they keep disturbing the peace.

And what Marie said, it's it's it's it may be a mired of of things, and it usually comes from either you know just mental health or or substance abuse or a combination of both.

So Marie and her team have done a really great job at tackling that and and getting people placed.

So we we appreciate the funding and and hopefully the federal government will give us the grant so we don't need to come to you for additional funding.

Hopefully, you heard that you heard the card is tight on him, it's tight on everybody.

So, hopefully, one less division needing some money, go a long way.

Right, but thank you, Josh.

All right, but thank you again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, uh, next we will hear from the independent police monitor.

Ms.

McDowell.

Okay, good to see you, all right.

Next time you can call it juvenile.

All right.

Thank you.

She can come to the you want to come to the front?

Oh, you guys, she wants to take pictures.

You could.

She can come to the front.

Come to the front, yeah.

Some better angles.

Oh Lord.

We call the Miss McGowan's nice.

I'm sorry, can you pronounce it for me?

You say Ms.

McGowan's high.

Right.

That's a good work prosecution.

Oh, my name is William.

Oh sorry.

Good afternoon.

Thank you to the council for having us present.

My name is Stella Cement, and I'm the independent police monitor for the city of New Orleans, and I'm joined today with Chriselle Williams, the deputy police monitor.

The Office of the Independent Police Monitor is an independent branch of city government responsible for monitoring the New Orleans Police Department in accordance with our creating statute, which is a part of the Homewell Charter.

Today we will review relevant data from the Office of the Independent Police Monitor and from the Public Integrity Bureau.

And we'll provide a couple relevant updates regarding our work.

Our primary responsibilities are to monitor, review, and recommend on policies, practices, and training and leadership and supervision in the fields of misconduct, force, officer discipline, and disciplinary appeals, risk management, legality, and liability.

We are required by law to conduct our community outreach to include the public and stakeholders in policing concerns.

We're required to operate our community police mediation program in order to build trust in the police department after allegations of misconduct, and to operate our office as a site where the public and NOPD employees alike can file complaints of officer misconduct or accounts of positive policing, otherwise known as commodations.

When we monitor, we are required to focus on disciplinary proceedings, use of force review board hearings, formal disciplinary investigations, and incidents of force, including going to critical incidents scenes, and monitoring the force investigation from start to finish.

The ultimate goal is to ensure the police department is compliant with law, constitutional in their actions, responsive and inclusive to the community they seek to serve, and is unbiased and a safe place for all individuals to work.

So starting with our data from the first half of the year, we're going to present data regarding our complaints and misconduct system, officer discipline, officer force, and the use of force review board, contact only and criminal liaisons, accommodations and policing awards, and our mediation programs, including our traditional police community mediation, our post-investigation mediation program, which is available after the formal disciplinary investigation is complete, and the district-based mediation program, which is now available for individuals seeking conflict resolution in lieu of calling 911.

So focusing first on complaints of officer misconduct.

So far this year, the Public Integrity Bureau, which is the Internal Affairs Division of the NOPD, has received approximately 333 complaints of officer misconduct.

So each complaint may include multiple allegations of misconduct that occurred during one encounter.

The OIPM is responsible for referring 132 complaint referral letters in 2026.

So at the time that we created this presentation, we had received one additional complaint of officer misconduct, but it wasn't yet entered into our system, which is why those two numbers are different.

There's the number that we've submitted to PIB so far and the number that we're currently handling.

And that's just the difference in one day.

Four of those complaints were cleared by body camera footage.

Four of those complaints resulted in credible violation investigations.

So that means that most likely from reviewing the body the body worn camera footage and from reviewing the matter that more likely than not there was a credible violation of policy.

And this is a truncated process that is now available to officers to be able to opt into and for PIB to be able to use.

Nine of our cases are currently in PIB's intake.

14 of those cases were classified as other, which is a new classification that's available within the Public Integrity Bureau.

12 cases currently have no information available in NOPD's database system, and 10 of the 132 that were submitted have resulted in formal disciplinary investigations.

And right now, many of them are being investigated and are currently ongoing.

In terms of officer discipline, we've included on this slide an understanding of how the disciplinary system works within the NOPD.

The Office of the Independent Police Monitor, we monitor the Public Integrity Bureau's formal disciplinary hearings.

There's two types of hearings that we're monitoring.

There's captain panel hearings and there's superintendent committee hearings.

So far this year we have monitored eight captain's panel hearings and 12 superintendent committee hearings.

And we wanted to include some additional information regarding what some of those disciplinary outcomes have been.

So nine of those matters are currently under advisement or pending, they're awaiting discipline.

Five have resulted in suspension, nine have resulted in termination, one has resulted in a rank demotion, two have resulted in education-based discipline, and three have resulted in disciplinary letters.

And we did flag for the public reviewing this PowerPoint that some officers were suspended or demoted and were also terminated.

So some of those things might have happened to the same individual.

Moving on to use of force and critical incidents.

Those were also considered the two critical incidents that occurred in 2026.

We've also monitored additional force allegations that the force investigation team was out conducting investigations about.

So that way the public would be able to understand that there's always someone from our office available to go out to this scene.

After a force investigation is completed, that force investigation will go before the use of force review board.

So far this year, there's been seven cases that have been heard in the use of force review board hearings.

There was 21 cases that were heard in 2025, just as a point of comparison.

So three months of use of force review board meetings have been canceled so far this year.

I will say that sometimes these hearings end up getting backloaded on the year.

So we do anticipate there will be a busy fall.

Of the seven cases that have gone to use of force review board hearings, 14% have resulted in a violation of department regulations guidelines or policy.

14% have resulted no vote, and 71% have been found to be within department regulations, guidelines, or policies.

We've included some pictures of the force investigation, sorry, the use of force review board hearings that we attend, so that way there would again be a little bit more transparency about what that room might look like.

There's a formal presentation that is done by the investigator, and then the voting members are able to vote on the force after there's a very robust discussion about any concerns that the stakeholders may have or just discussion about the force in general.

We also included a picture of actually myself, participating in a demonstration that was done by the force investigation team about a new tactic that might be utilized by the NOPD in the future called the RAP.

And this was something that the NOPD has been considering as a way to be able to de-escalate potential force and to ensure that individuals are able to be transported safely without possibly harming themselves or others while being brought into a squad car or being transported within that squad car.

So good morning.

I'm sorry, good afternoon.

I'm going to discuss community liaisons and contact only.

Not everyone who contacts our office is filed in a misconduct complaint.

And many people simply need guidance, information, or help navigating different systems.

And providing that assistance is an important part of our mission.

So we generally categorize these interactions into two different groups.

We have community liaisons, which are which is assisting community members with navigating interactions with the NLPD, facilitating communication with the Public Integrity Bureau or other police districts or other specialized divisions, are just helping them understand the status of an ongoing investigation.

We also have contact only, and this encompasses individuals who reach out seeking information, guidance, our assistance regarding another law enforcement agency, our city department.

Even when a matter falls outside of the jurisdiction of our office, we don't simply tell people we cannot help them.

We work to connect them with the agency best equipped to resolve their issues.

And so far this year we have done 11 community liaisons, and in 2025, we made 13 referrals to non-inopd agencies, including the Department of Public Works, the office of the Arlington's Parish Sheriff's Office, Louisiana State Police, DCFS, and others.

So this demonstrates that our office serves as a resource for community, even when other agency is ultimately has jurisdiction.

This work helps ensure the community members are connected to the right resources and don't have to navigate the criminal legal system alone.

Next, we're discussing how we're trying to increase public trust in the police department through the use of receiving accounts of positive policing, otherwise known as commodations, and how we're now sponsoring a constitutional policing award, which is given to a recruit of every graduating class of NOPD's Academy.

So far this year, we have sponsored one award at the one graduation that has been conducted.

There will be a second graduation that will be held in July, and the OIPM will be presenting our second constitutional policing award at that graduation ceremony.

Do you know the date?

I believe the date is July, is it I believe it was July 17th, if I'm not mistaken.

I think so.

I can double check.

We can check that and let you know.

As it gets closer, I'm sure they're going to advertise it as well.

We've received two accommodation requests from members of the public.

We also have generated accommodation requests as part of our post-investigation mediation process, because that's entirely voluntary for police officers to participate, and it is after the investigation is complete.

Therefore, there really isn't a clear incentive for police officers to willingly participate the same way with our normal with our traditional community police mediation program where participation would result in the ending of any formal disciplinary investigation.

Here they're voluntarily agreeing to come to the table after the investigation has been completed.

We want to make sure that we recognize those officers who are prioritizing sitting face to face with community members and having the hard conversations and trying to rebuild relationships.

We really appreciate officers that are willing to come to the table on that.

Next, we'll be talking about community police mediation.

So mediation is another important tool the OIPM uses to strengthen relationships between the NLPD and the community members.

We currently operate three mediation programs, each serving a completely different purpose.

We have community police mediation, which allows officers and community members to voluntarily resolve concerns in lieu of a formal disciplinary investigation when appropriate.

The success of the program is rooted in the willingness of both parties to participate in it.

Each person voluntarily comes to the table with a trained OIPM mediator who facilitates a respectful dialogue, allowing both parties to share their perspectives, listen to one another, and work toward a mutual understanding.

And we also have post-investigation mediation, which provides an opportunity for dialogue after an investigation has concluded, allowing both participants to discuss the incident and move toward understanding or closure.

Because the investigation has already concluded, as Stella has mentioned, sometimes with findings in favor of the officer, there's no obligation for either party to participate.

When an officer still chooses to voluntarily sit down with a community member and engage in that conversation, it demonstrates a commitment to communication, professionalism, and community trust.

And to recognize that commitment, the OIPM issues the participating officer, accommodation that becomes a part of the officer's personnel file.

And lastly, we do have a district-based community mediation program.

And this focuses on recurring conflicts within the community, whether between neighbors, family members, members of the same household, businesses, or others, where mediation may help address the underlying dispute before it escalates into repeated calls for police service.

Through a trained mediator, participants have the opportunity to work toward a mutually agreeable resolution that addresses the root cause of the conflict.

And the goal is to resolve the underlying issues, reducing the need for repeated law enforcement intervention while promoting healthy relationships and long-term solutions.

In 2026, we've already held seven community police mediations, one post-investigation mediation, and one district-based community mediation.

In addition to facilitating these mediations, we also continue to train both mediators and NOPD personnel to support these programs.

Mediation provides another avenue for accountability, communication, and conflict resolution, helping build trust while reducing unnecessary adversarial interactions.

Next, we have community outreach and public engagement.

Community engagement is a core responsibility of the OIPM because effective oversight begins with accessibility and public awareness.

The city code requires our office to hold outreach meetings throughout each council district and maintain regular engagement with police associations.

And we've strive to go beyond those minimum requirements by also participating in community events across the city.

As of June, we've participated in 39 community outreach events.

These events include events such as coffee with the IPM, which provides an opportunity for a sit-down one-on-one with community members in an informal setting to answer questions, discuss concerns, and explain the work of the OIPM.

We've held these events at places like Cafe Noir in St.

Rock, Pontilli Coffee and Gentili, and most recently at Becca Town Coffee Polar.

Our next coffee with the IPM will be held at Becca Town Coffee Polar again on Monday, July 6th from 8 30 a.m.

to 10 30 a.m.

And we encourage everyone to stop by, grab a cup of coffee, and come chat with us.

And while we're shouting out the coffee shops that have hosted us, they want to make sure we include Old Road.

Oh, yes, old Road as well.

And we also participate in community festivals and neighborhood events, including tabling, and I also had the pleasure of being a judge at District C's annual crawfish ball hosted by none other than Councilmember Friday King III.

We appear in podcasts and media appearances, and we also do educational presentation and informational tabling at events.

These opportunities allow us to educate residents about the complaint process, explain the role of the OIPM, answer questions, and hear directly from the community about their concerns and experiences.

Building trust starts long before someone files a complaint.

Consistent community engagement helps ensure residents know who we are, what we do, and how to access our office if we're ever needed.

So if you would like to learn more about any of our work or any of our data, we highly encourage you to check out our website or our social media platforms.

It's all available, including our 2025 annual report, which Krischal will discuss more.

So, yes, we have recently released our 2025 annual report at the end of May, which provides a comprehensive overview of our work throughout the year.

This report highlights trends and misconduct complaints, disciplinary investigations, use of force and critical incidents, our mediation efforts, and community engagement activities.

It also identifies areas of progress, opportunities for improvement, and recommendations intended to strengthen police accountability, professionalism, and community trust.

The report serves as an important transparency tool by providing the public, city council, and other stakeholders with meaningful information about both police oversight and OIPM activities.

We'd also like again to thank the City of New Orleans and NLPD for their assistance in providing the information necessary to complete this report.

The annual report is one of the OIPM's most important transparency tools.

It allows the public and policymakers to see not only the work we've completed throughout the year, but also trends, challenges, and opportunities that help guide future improvements in policing and police oversight.

And if anybody's interested in looking in that report, you can find it at our website on WWW.nola IPM.gov.

Last time we were here, I provided an update about the IPM appointment process.

The independent police monitor is an appointed position that serves under the ethics review board, similar to the inspector general.

The Office of the Independent Police Monitor is run by the Independent Police Monitor and the Independent Police Monitor, who is right now me, serves in four-year terms.

So we are appointed by the Ethics Review Board, and the Ethics Review Board is made up of appointed members that represent the different higher education institutions in New Orleans, and one individual is appointed from the mayor.

The Ethics Review Board is responsible for overseeing the Office of the Independent Police Monitor and the Office of the Inspector General.

My four-year term is now up.

I'm serving beyond my term.

Right now, the position of the independent police monitor has been open to a national search.

I want to be clear to the public, I have not resigned this position.

I have formally requested reappointment.

The public is more than welcome to attend any meeting that is hosted by the Ethics Review Board regarding this matter.

Everything regarding reappointment or appointment or the selection process, including potentially interviews, are is going to be done publicly.

Those board meetings are open to all.

The next board meeting will be held on July 21st in this room.

And to let the ethics review board know what they think is going right, what could be improved and um and just speak out about what they're looking for in a leader of that office.

So with that, that is all of the updates that the Office of the Independent Police Monitor has to share right now.

We welcome any questions or public comments or Councilman Green.

No, and thank you very much for the details.

Sometimes people ask me what I'm looking at on the phone.

Because it doesn't have to be an adversarial process, and a lot of people feel go get them, go get them on either side.

At the end of the day, it's about providing for the maximum of public safety, and that is provided when there's a maximum amount of communication between the two.

Sometimes people say, Oh, you're you're pro this or you're anti this.

No, it's all about being pro-safety in the city, and that can be achieved mostly by having enhanced communication.

So I appreciate that.

I appreciate your recognition of the persons who are doing the job correctly.

I mean, at the um police the graduations, um, that they're insisting on constitutional policing because for a city our size to have made this the um to have made the progress that we've made without having an abundance of complaints.

It suggests that our officers are concerned about constitutional patrols, constitutional investigations, and I appreciate your role in helping to make sure that those things happen.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your work for the over the last four years, and um this off your office has been uh very needed and appreciated in our community.

So we appreciate it.

Thank you all.

Thank you so much.

I hope we can get one of those coffees with the uh independent police monitor on the West Bank.

We're trying to.

I'm trying to thank you.

All right.

Especially since you're the one and only Freddie King.

You've heard the thing.

Two more.

I know two more.

Three more.

Then I'll I'll make sure, Councilman Green that I figure out what date it is and check and give it back to you, the actual date of the graduation.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

Up next, now the last presenter for today will be the juvenile justice intervention center.

I'm assuming there are no public comments, Ms.

Anita.

We do have one for JJIC is Mr.

Bell and Batis, but we heard his comments are support earlier today.

That's fine.

We can call it now.

I said it's a car.

Uh oh, you get a the presentation.

Yeah, but in that art, I think it's on my phone, so I'll be a problem.

Oh, we have to say, that's a car, so I don't think that's all right.

What do we see them?

Well, I'll get started while they um look for my presentation.

Um good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity um to be here today.

Um I'm here to provide the quarterly updates on the work of the juvenile justice intervention center.

And while I look forward to sharing our progress, I am also here with an important request.

I, Ms.

Williams, on behalf of the Juvenile Justice Intervention Center, respectfully ask that the juvenile justice intervention center be respected as the public safety agency and afforded the same level of attention, support, and consideration as the Orleans Justice Center, the New Orleans Police Department, uh EMS, and the fire department.

JJIC is a secure juvenile detention facility, and we are an essential part of New Orleans Public Safety System.

Over the past several years, JJIC has worked intentionally and diligently to change the narrative of our agency.

We have built a culture of transparency, accountability, and professionalism.

Today, JJIC is a place where staff and youth feel safer.

Morel has significantly improved, and critical incidents have been reduced to the point that they are now rare.

These accomplishments are the direct result of the unwavering commitment of our staff, our extremely, extremely small leadership team, and our community partners.

Every day, our dedicated staff alongside our community partners work tireless tirelessly to rehabilitate, restore, and prepare the youth in our care for successful reentry into the community.

While JJIC is a detention center, it's also a place of hope, accountability, education, and transformation.

So today, I also extend a sincere invitation to every city council member and all city officials to visit JJIC.

I encourage you to come and witness firsthand the incredible work being done by our staff, our community partners, and most importantly, the young people in our care.

Despite the challenges and circumstances that brought them to JJIC, many of these youth are working every day to change the trajectory of their lives.

They are choosing growth, embracing opportunities, and striving to become better than their circumstances that they have faced.

I also ask that JJIC receive your attention and support not only during times of crisis or when there's a public safety issue, but also during times of success.

Supporting JJIC through during these positive moments reinforce the important work being accomplished and acknowledges the dedication of the professionals and you who make this progress possible.

So with that, I want to say thank you for your time and considerations.

Staff, youth, community partners to help those young people make a difference in their life and make more positive decisions and choices, and we are providing them with the tools to do that, but nobody really seemed to care other than this few group of people that come and show up constantly.

And so while I am the messenger, um, what I brought to you today is pretty much how the staff of JJI feel and how the youth of JJIC feel.

Points well taken.

I'm gonna continue to so must show my support, I'm sure Council McGreen will do the same.

I'll I'll let Council McGreen uh have the floor, then I'll close us out with some comments.

Oh no, I mean, you certainly know that I'm gonna attend that I you're it's heard loud and clearly.

The reason I'm there is because I recognize that it's an important part of helping young people who are many times crying out for help, very honestly.

So I appreciate the work that you do.

I understand the challenges.

I mean, certainly financially, we all know where the city is, but um I will continue to support it and we'll encourage people to recognize that it's a very important institution in our city that deserves our support.

And there are sometimes ways to support it beyond the city.

For example, activities that I can help to promote that you know you want the public to know more of, or if you want to have hearings in the community and let people understand truly what's going on so that they don't, you know, just view it as a jail or the youth study center of the past.

You let me know too, and we'll get people out there so that they can hear about it.

And sometimes that helps because we need more support from the state of Louisiana too.

I'll just see the month and straightforward.

Here I go again, it's my fourth time saying it, but now it really needs to be said as often as we can meet.

I mean, the state is acting as if the city is uh is an entity until itself and not part of an entire state, but yet they come here for access to resources, access to events and things like that.

So um I hope that during this next year, especially that there is some more of a commitment, certainly that we can do our, we can get our finances in better shape, but also that the state recognizes that we're all in this together and that we need and that we need help.

Yeah, no, absolutely I agree.

I I say often um when I come here, um, I never want to uh minimize the fact that there are victims out there that some of these um you may have um harmed and allegedly have harmed in some type of way, but um, if we don't get it right inside of JJIC in that small time frame that we have to try to help them um gain the tools and and the resources that they need to transform and into um better uh individuals, then they return to these same communities and continue to do the same thing.

So we are working um extremely hard um to the best our ability, and again um the support from you guys and and our community partners is is really what's helping the very small staff that we have at JJIC try to um change the narrative and hopefully change the trajectory of some of these children's lives.

I can be a strong advocate of victims as I am.

I mean, you know, a founder of an organization called Voices of the Victims of Crime because they don't get heard, they suffer in silence many times, their families are disrupted.

But you can be a supporter in that area of need, and also recognize that when you're dealing with sometimes even the perpetrators of the crimes that it's great and best if you can work with them to enhance their quality of life as they move forward, you know.

So I hear you loud and clear relative to support.

Alright, thank you.

I'm gonna go quickly because I know we've been here all day.

All right, so um, quarter one, I mean quick real quick.

I was wanting to acknowledge that councilman Hughes has joined us.

All right, all right.

Welcome.

All right.

Um, so in quarter two, um JJIC had 96 new admissions to the facility with the top uh detention charge being uh all these parish juvenile court warrant.

And what I will say about those warrants is that um a large portion of those um uh arrests um on the OJC warrant had to do with the electronic monitoring um devices, and I'm not gonna call it actual violations, it was just more um malfunctioning and errors, and so they are brought in by um the state juvenile probation and uh probation officers to JJIC, and they may have to sit a day or two until we uh rectify those errors.

Um we discharged 138 youth, 120 were court order, and again, a small percentage of that had to do of those court orders were based on those um arrests for the uh electronic monitoring uh malfunctioning devices.

Um we had nine youth transferred to OJJ, and then we had four youth transferred to OJC to the adult jail, and three that was placed in long-term mental health facilities.

Our average length of stay is about 80 days for um youth detained at JJIC.

Our um youth demographics is primarily youth between the ages of 15 and 16.

Um African American um males make up the most of our uh population.

We've seen a 5% increase in our female population this uh quarter, a 5% decrease in our male um population, and then overall 96% of our population is African American.

Our intensive in-home supervision currently today have 16 youth.

In the second quarter, we enrolled 68 youth.

We had 29 um 68 youth and families participated in our uh program this quarter.

We had 29 new youth enrolled, 19 successfully graduated, and 11 unsuccessfully graduated, uh finished the program how and we had no new arrests from kids in our intensive in-home supervision program.

JJIC is fortunate and blessed to have one of the best uh medical and behavioral health um partnerships that any detention center asked for.

Our services are provided by many family children um hospital through the LCMC network.

Um, in this quarter, they provided they saw an average of 45 youth based on our daily census, 113 mental health visits, 172 medical visits, 86 social work visits, and 165 sick calls.

Um, they are continuing to onboard uh full-time registered nurses, and so we took they hired two full-time nurses and one full-time social worker this quarter.

Um in our awesome partnership with Travis Hill School, um, we hosted two uh graduation ceremonies for a total of five graduates.

Um 75% of the students passed the leap test.

We are entering into our summer session where students will have uh academic uh recovery credits for those that um didn't fare out too well during the um regular school year, they'll do leap remediation, and then in summer too, we'll participate in art and STEM, and also um we call it our freedom school where they'll go to school half of the day, and the rest of the day will be filled with cultural enrichment, and we've added this art and stem to that component.

Um our programming partners, JJIC has um several uh structured programming partners that also aid and support our rehabilitative and rest uh restorative uh uh practices at JJIC, and so we do have some events that are coming up.

We have our summer basketball tournament where the youth versus the staff.

We put on a full basketball experience with a halftime show, and then we will have a summer program and showcase of all of the community partners that currently works inside of JJIC with the young people.

They'll be showcasing their uh work and everything that they do with the youth.

Something else we are also um proud of.

We revealed the mirror on June 4th, and we also um have a garden of forgiveness where we have youth currently working with Spectrum Arch New Orleans um with Artists journey Allen.

They've created a garden where they are providing vegetable, they're um growing vegetables and and fruit and and foods that um they are actually uh pulling from the garden and using those items um to prepare healthy meals.

So we can't wait till we have that unveiling so everyone can come in and see that space.

Um, in terms of our human resource department, um, like much of everyone that presented today from the public safety and criminal justice arenas.

Um we are critically understaffed.

JJIC currently lacks all metal management.

Um zero.

I am a I am the um one-stop shop in terms of management, and um and I'm the overseer of the entire agency, plus four other departments.

Um I am I am literally begging for middle management, and and um, if we want to continue um to um work on turning the narrative and keeping it positive at JJIC, I am I cannot provide direct oversight over the entire agency plus four individual departments.

Um but on the softer side of things.

Um we did hire two uh JJIC, I mean two JDC ones, one JD, one JJIC uh grounds patrol officer, and there is an offer out, which she's accepted with a start date in the third quarter for the support superintendent of supportive services who will be um replacing Ms.

Lee.

Um Reesman, and we had one social worker promoted to a senior um social worker.

All right, I'll let Mr.

Compton, I'm sorry, I didn't even introduce y'all.

I was just trying to get through this, but uh Mr.

Compton, our um chief operating engineer will talk about the issues as it relates to infrastructure and building maintenance.

Okay, I did.

I see, we still uh struggle with uh infrastructure, um, mainly through because of um budget constraints.

Our tiller um is at about 60% capacity, and we're just holding on with it.

Our generators are really non-operational right now.

If we have an outers like we had a few weeks ago.

Last week, right.

They don't uh come on because there are three of them, but they work together.

Uh they don't work individually, and we are still awaiting uh from the contractor some parts so that we could finally get them together.

Also, we are still working to try to get our replacement um for our server for camera system, only half our camera system is operational right now.

And also, we're uh we're still awaiting funding for our grinder pumps, which is critically important for our plumbing system because of our population at the facility, a lot of clothing and other uh items are go down the trains, and we have constant stoppages, blockages um in the plumbing, um, but with the grind proper grinder pumps, they that um does not exist, but uh we're still waiting on that.

So we're just hanging on.

Um, we have a uh frequent plumber visits to clear the lines and stuff like that.

But yeah, we're still struggling to try to try to keep things going.

All right, all right.

So quarter two successes for JJIC is a decrease in daily U population as um uh the the sheriff, the police department has stated the D has stated um crime is going down, it's definitely decreasing.

We usually trend about 76 to sometimes overcrowding in our summer months, and today our population is 40 um four youth.

Um, and so uh there's definitely a decrease in our daily youth population.

We're seeing um less youth brought in um or arrested.

Uh our rehabilitative therapeutic instruction programming to the overall operations inside of JJIC, and it is uh contributing to us lowering our um all our incidents critical, major and minor.

And then um JGIC continues to aggressively reduce overtime to the best of our ability, um, so we can stay within our approved budget limits.

Uh some of our highlights that we have, and I'll continue to um, because I can't be grateful enough for this structure programming, it is really making a difference inside JGIC.

Um, so again, the funding for that and allowing JGIC um to uh for be able to afford uh awesome uh structure programming uh partner um we are thankful for that and uh our many family children is also going paperless, they're going like for electronic.

Um, and so they went uh live with their epic medical record system.

So JJIC uh will be uh fully um paperless um soon once they get through their um final training, and that's all I have.

If you have any questions for me, council member uh green, councilman followed by councilman hews with our new question.

All right.

Well, I just want to say thank you, Ms.

Williams and your staff.

You do a great job.

Um, like everyone else up to the day, you do more with less, and uh some of the stats are kind of disheartening seeing us 97% of the kids there are black youth, uh 85% roughly of black boys.

Um we see we start today where you where $200 a day is used, $73,000 a year is used to house one inmate.

Um, and if we invest a handful of that into our kids, we would have some issues we have, but I don't understand what it'll take to have.

The powers that be to realize, where we're going, it's not sustainable.

Do you do you have any idea how much it costs uh daily to house one of the kids?

A hundred and it's a hundred and seventy-six dollars, and that was about that was about five years ago, and and so um I can get back to you with the current number.

Um we went from the office of um Department of Children and Family Services to the Office of Juvenile Justice, and so um, in terms of um, in terms of has the cost changed, yeah, with inflation definitely.

I can get back to you with the accurate number.

Let me know, but you said 176, so I'm gonna just put 180.

You said 80 days was the average state.

Yes.

So uh that's 14,000 to house somebody.

I mean, that's too much.

And our capacity is 76, so that's 14,000 times 76, right?

76.

It's a million dollars a year.

Yeah.

We could do a whole lot more on the preventive side with a million dollars a year.

Yeah, 14,000 for 80 days.

That's that's college tuition for some universities for a year.

Our priorities, not our it just seems like the the and I failed to mention um because we house two different populations, uh, our longest average length of stay is seven is 705 days.

Probably is in the wrong place, but yours in the right place.

It's council's priorities in the right place.

We'll continue together to keep make the city uh a safer city.

So thank you.

All right, thank you.

With that, I make a motion to adjourn.

Second, second by council member green.

All in favor.

All right, three uh three ayes, all opposed.

Hearing none, meetings adjourned.

Thank you.