NEW ORLEANS — With 240 carjacking investigations in New Orleans in the past year, residents have been experiencing the worse rate of carjackings the city has seen since 2015-2016's 140, a report said.
The report from the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate said the rise in carjackings in New Orleans is a trend that's hitting most major American cities. The trend in those cities also shows a rise in killings, shootings, and other violent crimes.
Officials said the city's seen a 51 percent increase in shootings & a 45 percent increase in aggravated assaults, which are mostly assaults with a weapon.
New Orleans officials announced Thursday that City Hall will spend $1 million dollars to add 70 surveillance cameras to its existing Real-Time Crime Center network of cameras.
The move is one way the City Council is responding to the recent uptick in violent crimes across the city, including carjackings and shootings.
Experts told the Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate that the rise is a result of multiple factors that include impacts from the pandemic on mental health as well as the strain between police officers and the people they're supposed to protect and serve.
The Little Woods neighborhood in New Orleans East has been the hardest hit with more than 11% of the total carjackings reported. It also had the highest number of carjackings in the city consistently over the past decade.
Footage of a recent carjacking outside a New Orleans East convenience store showed a woman climbing into a car and driving away as two children jumped out of the back seat.
Video shows the alleged carjacker running over one of the children's legs.
New Orleans Police Department members took hours to get to the scene after a 9-1-1 call. NOPD noted a miscommunication between the 9-1-1 operator and the person who called for help.
Read the full report here.