Which is to sternly lecture Riley at a council meeting, where he will respond that because they haven't run into flaming crackhouses they have no standing to complain. Of course, those who do run into the aforementioned crackhouses can't speak up for fear of being terminated or reassigned. It is encouraging, however, to see Cannizzaro being proactive. It remains to be seen, of course, whether he: 1) actually intends to follow through; and 2) has the ability to make the NOPD do something it doesn't want to. My suggestion? Have Cannizzaro, the Council, and the Mayor come out publicly to tell Riley that he will not be judged by his comstat numbers, but instead by successful prosecutions. That, and hope the fickle New Orleans public doesn't turn on them when reports of serious offenses skyrocket. Then, perhaps, we won't have home invasions classified as "aggravated burglary" and thugs shooting people in cars (but not killing them) as "aggravated battery by shooting." Comstat is a serious contributing factor to our problems. Apart from the heat, the reason you don't see that many foot patrols is because you get more reports of crime. Not that more crime is happening, mind you. But when people "get to know" their beat cop, they tell him more, and he has to report more. That makes numbers go up, and the rank get heat for it. And dude, don't get me started on Thom Kahler.

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cities don't have this problem because their police force is better (although they may in fact be better), the problem exists because of the demographics of our city. There is a plethora of dysfunctional youth, that come from dysfunctional "families" that have no inhibitions to kill. The problem isn't the police aren't everywhere, the problem is the dysfunctional that can not function in a civil society are everywhere. Put the blame where it belongs on the criminals and their enablers.

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Why is it the citizen's job to make the NOPD do their job? The anecdotal reports of the failure of the 8th and 5th to step up and protect residents are legion.

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Oh, and this is right off of Kahler's website: "Chronicling crime in the heart of New Orleans--the French Quarter and its surrounding neighborhoods. Few of the crimes in the 8th District are reported by the NOPD, so we welcome information from residents about crime where they live. We believe if citizens have information about threats to their safety they will hopefully be able to take precautions against becoming victims."

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Duff, "Comstat is a serious contributing factor to our problems." I can see where you someone might acquire that viewpoint. But don't blame a system of accountability and metrics, blame the leadership guiding the process, the misuse of the metrics, and the lack of accountability of the system to citizens. The idea of measuring crime reductions to reward meritorious achievement is good. What alternative to that is there? Really. Crime reduction doesn't necessarily mean more municipal arrests. Sometimes that might be a tool in the police arsenal which might be used to get at a hot spot and find out who the people are causing problems in a neighborhood, or to quickly sweep up fugitives and repeat violent offenders. What's happened to the NOPD is a deterioration of morale due to a lack of focus on achievement, accompanied by recognition for results. Instead, loyalty is being rewarded, no matter what the level of competence for rank promotions. There are some exceptions where smart people who are competent can play the game, but I would say that the problems are rotting the morale of the police department -- which is a travesty, because there are some highly motivated people who want to create a safe community -- and there's only one way to fix that problem. As for requiring official permission to attend an event, what if some police official happened to walk into Buffa's? Would he or she have to say, "Oh, sorry. My bad. I'm not supposed to be here." This is Riley. If you don't give subordinates the decision-making responsibility and tools they require to succeed, they are sure to fail. There's absolutely NO REASON why Hosli should not only be allowed to show up to any meeting he wanted to, but would be penalized for ignoring a meeting in this manner. Of course, this is all complete speculation, because we don't have a police chief who communicates a clear strategic plan to combat crime.

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You're right Kevin. Hallelujah for that. Nola.com sucks. One more thing Duff, you may be right about the idea of evaluating the NOPD based upon prosecutions. That's what I mean about accountability to citizens. You've come up with an idea which merits a response from Riley. Either he can do it, or he can't, and he states the pros and cons one way or another. But he DOES something, and he EXPLAINS why he's doing that something.

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By all means, I'm for accountability. It seems to me, however, that comstat in Orleans has turned into "No Child Left Behind." Gaming the numbers and "teaching to the test" has become paramount, not the actual less tangible goal that should be. However, what other reason is there for police not wanting to take reports? I understand there might be some desire to do less paperwork, but is that it? Gaming comstat is certainly not unique to New Orleans. I've had conversations with cops in far flung jurisdictions that have had the same pressure from the top to undercharge an arrest. You remove the slavish adherence to the numbers, and I think the disincentive to do good police work is lessened, not removed, but lessened. I think we're to the point of having to do something drastic and/or out of the box, a la Giuliani's "broken-window" Times Square. The bad guys have no fear of consequences, and this must be addressed. Some Tulane and Broad judges are complicit in the problems as well, but that probably another whole discussion right there. On the point of morale being terrible, I agree. The fact that Hosli can't go into a meeting without being afraid of saying something counter to the "party line" is horrible. We had Mike Glasser in the 2nd for all of 4 months or so, before he got transferred again. Rumor was that it was political. I heard automatic gunfire last night and wondered when that became normal. Also, Obama will mean the end of all civilization. Tee hee.

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Duff, I'll wholeheartedly agree with you, up to the point of completely trashing systems which *should* be used to hold people accountable to some metric. We don't need less Comstat -- we need more Comstat. We need to expand Comstat to citizens. But the public can't use records as a metric to hold the NOPD accountable if the records are being withheld. I believe that's where you're going with your line of reasoning. So, the answer isn't to stop measuring crime and crime reduction. The answer is to report it more widely, and to have it independently verified. The way forward is for the NOPD to release everything it has, scrubbing any data elements which would violate victim privacy. As a victim, you should be able to verify that the crime which was committed against you ended up being reported as such, and you should easily be able to determine what the outcome was -- an arrest, a conviction, or otherwise. There's much more that can be discovered when the records are open. In the end, we should be able to praise those who are effective, and find ways to either improve or remove those who aren't. And no, we shouldn't expect that the city's existing set of entrenched contractors are going to give us what we want. The answer that they're working on yet another improvement to a system which was a failure in the first place is no longer acceptable. Just give us the records. We'll do it ourselves.

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