‘Holistic approach’: Michael Harrison shares lessons with New Orleans after historic crime drop in Baltimore
“I’m the only chief in the country to have led two police departments under federal consent decree.." Harrison said.
Former New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison says he truly knows what it means to miss New Orleans.
“It feels great to be home. My wife and I made a decision to move back to New Orleans so we could be closer to family,” Harrison said. “I have a three-year-old grandbaby here. My son and his wife and grandbaby are here.”
He’s back after more than four years serving as Baltimore Police Commissioner.
He was tapped to lead the department in 2019 as WWL Louisiana anchor Devin Bartolotta was wrapping up her time as a reporter in Baltimore.
Now, both here in the Crescent City, they sat down one-on-one to talk about his major success in lowering violent crime in Baltimore and what lessons New Orleans can take from it.
“Those lessons were invaluable. So now I'm back in New Orleans. Baltimore was the best classroom I could ever be in. It taught me more than all the classrooms I’ve ever sat in,” he said.
Classroom of Baltimore City
In the classroom of Baltimore City, Harrison not only learned a lot, but earned high marks. By the time he left, Baltimore saw its largest-ever decrease in homicides. Cases were down 20 percent, and the city saw fewer than 300 killings for the first time in a decade.
Non-fatal shootings were also down nine percent. And the department is closer than ever to ending its consent decree.
“So this, this myth that you can't have a constitutional police department and police constitutionally and reform and reduce violent crime at the same time. I've now debunked that twice in two cities,” he said.
Harrison began his career at NOPD in the 90s. He was appointed commissioner by Mitch Landrieu in 2014 to replace Ronald Serpas. In 2018, while he was superintendent, New Orleans saw its lowest homicide rate in nearly half a century.
Then, in 2019, came the big move from the Crescent City to Charm City. Baltimore is a city of about 200-thousand more people, but it faces many of the same problems as New Orleans.
There are high poverty rates, low literacy rates, the crippling epidemic of violent crime, and a police department under a consent decree with federal oversight.
Harrison said, “I’m the only chief in the country to have led two police departments under federal consent decree. Superintendent Kirkpatrick is starting her second police department now, but other than chief Kirkpatrick, I'm the only one to have led two.”
Baltimore Police Commissioner Harrison inherited all of the department’s issues in a city wrought with scandal.
Both the Mayor who appointed Harrison — and the police commissioner who preceded him — served prison time for different crimes.
The City State’s Attorney at the time Harrison was appointed was indicted while in office and recently convicted.
“So in a four-and-a-half-year period, I worked for three mayors. So there's three administrations that had to turn over and start from scratch,” Harrison said.
Despite the hurdles, Harrison found success working with the city on the Group Violence Reduction Program. It specifically engaged people at the highest risk of gun violence and sought to change their lives.
He left BPD in June 2023 with a historic dip in violent crime and high praise from the judge overseeing Baltimore’s consent decree.
Lessons learned from lowering crime
Now, he’s ready to share what he’s learned.
Devin asked, “Both New Orleans and Baltimore are under a consent decree, they both dealt with the recruitment issue, and deal with very similar crime numbers. So how did you do it?”
“Well, it wasn't just me. It really takes a comprehensive, holistic approach,” Harrison replied. “I really believe learning this, learning this in New Orleans, but I really believe there are five things that have to be addressed in order to really have a positive effect on crime, namely violent crime. That's prevention, intervention, enforcement, rehabilitation, and reentry. Notice I said ‘enforcement’ - that's only one of the pillars that belong to the police.”
“Where do you see the biggest gaps in your five pillars here in New Orleans?” Devin asked.
“Well, the biggest gaps are always going to be the collaborative. How do we bring these nonprofits, faith based academics, police? How do we bring them together on the same page to offer the services? And then how do we fund that?”
Harrison says he’s hoping to bridge some of those gaps in his new position with the District Attorney’s Office. He serves as a law enforcement liaison but is also assessing the “No Dice” program to fix up neighborhoods or areas that attract crime.
“If we can fix the lighting, the trees, the trash, the abandoned houses, cars, then maybe we can eliminate some of the crime, deter or displace some of it, and apprehend people who commit it,” he said.
National consulting work
Less granular is his national consulting work.
He’s joined the consent decree monitoring teams in Chicago and Minneapolis, is working with the Department of Justice as it investigates the Memphis Police Department, and is working with a firm in Philadelphia.
Still, New Orleans is home.
“I wanted to make sure that I'm doing work to help the city I love so much, in the city where I live again, and where I was born and raised,” said Harrison.
When it comes to deterring crime in Louisiana, Harrison says he does support Governor Jeff Landry’s calls to place a permanent Louisiana State Police troop in New Orleans.
He also believes NOPD has turned a corner and is on its way to full compliance with its consent decree.
But his experience tells him that changing lives works better than changing laws. Punishment-heavy legislation, he believes, will likely not be a long-term fix.
“I would like to see our city provide – not just our city but with state and federal help -- provide the resources and the kind of culture that allows people to have options away from crime and that we can change people instead of just using the criminal justice system to punish them, which sometimes changes them, but sometimes it doesn't,” he said.
“But actually help people have a better life. When people could have a better life, they can contribute more to our economy, to our city, and that makes us a better, stronger, safer city.”
Better, stronger, safer, smarter. Lessons from one of America’s toughest classrooms.
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