Both the New Orleans Police Department and District Attorney's Office have both felt the heat of public outrage for the surge of violent crime in this city and for not working together to get a handle on it, a problem that has really come to the forefront post-Katrina.

WWL-TV

District Attorney Eddie Jordan

Now, some 90 days after announcing a 10-point agreement between Police Chief Warren Riley and District Attorney Eddie Jordan, they said their plan is working.

Jordan and Riley said the proof that their plan is working can be seen by looking at the number of ‘701 releases’ since mid-March. A ‘701 release’ occurs when a felony suspect has not been charged in 60 days while in prison and is let go.

In January, 580 suspects were let out of jail; in February, 402; in the month the cooperative agreement between the DA’s Office and NOPD began—March—527 suspects were released; in April that number was 444; and in the first half of May, 169 suspects were released.

Jordan called it a 20 to 30 percent decrease.

Much of that improvement can be attributed to an NOPD crime lab on UNO’s campus that’s operating at about 50%. The crime lab is expected to be fully operational in the next 45 days.

“We expect that number to continue to decline as the laboratory becomes fully operational,” Jordan said. “In fact, we would hope by the next quarter where we would report by July, we would see that that number has dramatically declined.”

Jordan added that there would be no 701 releases once the crime lab is up and running.