NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Police Department addressed an error made in reporting rapes in 2021 and 2022 from its Special Victims Division on Tuesday. Over 400 rape cases were underreported in those years.
In 2021, there were 501 rapes (first, second and third-degree) reported to Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement (LCLE). With the data reexamined, the number of rapes came up to 696, with an undercount of 195 cases. And in 2022, 442 rape incidents were submitted to LCLE. But with the new review, the total of rapes was 672, an undercount of 223 cases, NOPD reported.
"NOPD did not have a NIBRS compliant records management system," said Deputy Superintendent Nicholas Gernon. "But NOPD was not alone in this manner", he said.
The error came after FBI switched to a new system to report rape cases in 2015. Before, NOPD used an older system called the Uniform Crime Report Summary, which placed crime on a hierarchy and allowed the FBI to compare crime city to city and state to state.
FBI set a national standard to use what is called the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) program, which is more detailed and allows law enforcement agencies to see crime trends over time.
However, NOPD did not have the NIBRS program and still does not have it, said Gernon.
Gernon went on to say agencies in other cities also struggled implementing a NIBRS compliant system.
He said NOPD doesn't directly report to the FBI. It reports to LCLE, which takes all of the state's agencies, packages them, and reports them to the FBI.
"LCLE allowed us to resubmit our sex crime statistics and we did so over the weekend. And when we did, as we stood over the weekend, our 2021 numbers were 743 and our 2022 numbers were 726, FBI defined UCR rapes."
Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said "I do want to stress to you that this issue is only in the reporting of the data, it does not effect or change the actual investigations during these years."
It also doesn't change how any evidence in the cases, was or are being handled. Kirkpatrick stated, after being made aware, working to address it.
Gernon stressed being transparent to the community and said they would start to publish quarterly reports on sex crime statistics within the city. He said they are still working on upgrading their reporting system.
"The citizens in the community need to know what our numbers are," Gernon said.
Morgan Lamandre, the president of Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response, believes having the correct data paints an accurate picture of what women and children face in the region.
“Every ten years those numbers are updated to come up with a formula for voca funding and New Orleans went from a 15 to like a ten in terms of the funding formula and we know based on population that that can’t be completely accurate,” Lamandre said.
She says those dollars are critical to agencies working to support survivors.
“You'll hear all the time, ‘Oh, I don’t go to New Orleans, or im scared to go to new Orleans," Lamandre said. "Well, the truth is that you are statistically more likely to get assaulted by someone you're in a relationship with or an acquaintance with.”
She applauded the department for making the necessary corrections and encourages citizens to constantly question what the numbers tell us.
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