NEW ORLEANS — Newly appointment Governor Jeff Landry is calling for Louisiana State Police to be deployed to New Orleans to fight crime. City councilman Oliver Thomas wrote a letter to the Governor's office asking how that'll work and he wants answers.
WWL Louisiana caught up with the Governor today and asked him about Troop NOLA.
Gov. Landry said, "The difference is that under this administration we're not sending the state police to secure the French Quarter, we're sending the state police in there to make the city as a whole safe."
Governor Jeff Landry is pushing for 40 Louisiana State Police troopers to be based in New Orleans to fight crime, Troop NOLA as the operation is called, is set to launch after carnival season.
However, Councilman Oliver Thomas is asking, "What happens if there's an incident in an area, where you have state police staged as well as NOPD who responds? How do they coordinate that? Are there certain level degrees of responses?"
The councilman says the city works with state police often, including during Mardi Gras. He says traditionally state police are invited, not forced upon the city.
"There was an agreement then, it wasn't someone saying we're going to send this here that emanated from the city relationship with the state," he said.
The councilman admits NOPD is short staffed but he's asking how this will work, especially with the city's consent decree, he said, "Have we talked to the federal monitor how they think that should look, or how they think that should operate?"
Ray Bender, a youth advocate, owns The Hangout, a kid friendly space. He believes the fight against crime should be tackled from a holistic approach instead. For our young people, that means youth programs.
Bender said, "All of us have to come together to address the issue we have."
He went on to say, "They think they lack options and we're not presenting all the options to them, if we can just come together as an entire community to address it, we can at least try and chip away at this issue."
Bender says the holistic approach does include law enforcement, he believes community policing however, could make a bigger difference for our kids. "I know that if you are the sister of a cop that is now in our neighborhood but I grew up next to you, two houses down, I came and ate sometimes, we communed over food, we played sports in your backyard, so there's a level of trust that has already been designed."
Governor Landry said he'd be willing to meet with city officials about Troop NOLA. We asked the Governor's office how and if state troopers would operate under the city's consent decree, the office said they won't have that answer until the crime special session on Feb. 19 when everything is rolled out.
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