It’s as bogus, if not disingenuous, as it gets when Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s request for National Guard troops to be activated for use in crime-fighting efforts in Louisiana’s three largest cities is disparaged.
Last week, Landry asked for the state’s National Guard to be deployed by his administration in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport, at federal government expense. Other than that, plans are as yet indeterminate as to the details of the operation.
Some Democrat officeholders, predictably, have complained about this effort, where ironically enough the loudest at the local level seem to have come from those whose areas they represent have experienced for decades the worst amount of crime. They moan about militarization and sending a negative message, although perhaps what really concerns them the appearance of troops may highlight that politicians of their stripes have been in office forever with no improvement in crime reduction and that voters might catch on to this cross-generation failure.
A more subtle critique comes in the form of asking why now, especially as violent crime appears to be waning. From what can be gleaned, it’s the trend among Louisiana’s largest cities, the state, and the nation.
From what can be gleaned. A huge problem in analyzing crime is that data as a whole has a number of problems. For nearly a century the federal government has collected such data and published a Uniform Crime Report that attempts to provide some uniformity and comparability across the tens of thousands of agencies that fight crime.
But such reporting isn’t required and while the large majority of agencies involved do, some don’t, making for incomplete data (if missing data typically skewed towards smaller agencies). Further, in 2021 the reporting system changed (a good summary of the challenges faced in Louisiana concerning that is here) which has created multi-year gaps that even some of the largest jurisdictions haven’t yet addressed satisfactorily. For example, New Orleans is running behind, with submitted data only through 2023.
Nonetheless, using UCR data, it’s clear that, while declining generally, violent crime in the three cities is significantly higher than the state average and much higher than the national average. Using just 2021-23 data that are complete for all three cities, the two largest saw a decline while Shreveport’s actually increased and through 2024, although through July of this year the trend points to this falling to the lowest level since 2002. Still, in 2023 New Orleans’ rate was over twice the state rate and over three times the national rate; Baton Rouge just under twice the state rate and about 2.5 times the national rate; and Shreveport was twice the state rate and just under three times the national rate.
It's a strange argument to fault Landry on trying to get these cities’ rate down and less multiplicative of state and national rates. Further, using the Guard is a strategy that works, the numbers from the deployment this summer in Washington, DC show – coordinating with other agencies to concentrate most resources in higher-crime areas has led to a steeper decline than the existing trend had been.
The larger question about the deployment is its duration. Sure, it can reduce crime but unless it goes on indefinitely its benefits will have to be reaped another way that can be implemented while using the Guard as a bridge to achieving that end state. And this is policy action that really must emanate from the local level. Policy made by Landry and/or the Legislature – witness the special session of last year that reintroduced a more realistic worldview of the origins of criminal behavior focusing on deterrence as a means to discourage it – only can go so far.
State policy-makers also can address ancillary environmental conditions that can discourage crime, such as reduced government control of economic relations that would encourage opportunity and policies to improve educational attainment such as greater choice and more rigor in schooling. But as with public safety policy, it will take a similar commitment by local officials to bring about a permanent reduction in crime.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem forthcoming from a number of such officials. Until that changes – and perhaps this change starts at the voting booth – the benefits of guard deployment for crime reduction will last only as long as the deployment.
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