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Crime Coalition Goes to D.C.

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Page 2 of 3 N.O. leaders in D.C. toot horn about crime Group seeks dollars for justice system Wednesday, April 16, 2008 WASHINGTON

-- Seeking $17 million in federal financing for law enforcement, New

Orleans business and community leaders were in Washington on Tuesday

touting the criminal justice gains in the city since Hurricane Katrina. In

a presentation at the National Press Club, the group highlighted a 93

percent violent crime prosecution rate, a 40 percent drop in criminal

case-processing time and a corps of volunteers providing oversight at

the criminal courthouse. Later, the group met for an hour with U.S.

Attorney General Michael Mukasey. "We're

here to assure you that New Orleans citizens are on the case," CEO of an international trading company and chairman of the

New Orleans Crime Coalition, told more than 100 people at the Press

Club.

The coalition, which includes an array of business and community

groups, has seized on the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina to

push for a top-to-bottom overhaul of a local criminal justice system

infamous before the storm for its inefficiency and corruption. Rusovich

said homicides in the first quarter of 2008 were down 10.4 percent from a

year ago. The

group successfully pressed for raising the starting salaries of

criminal prosecutors from $30,000 a year to $50,000 to attract

better-qualified lawyers. A special team of seasoned prosecutors was

formed to take on the most violent offenders, and last year won 54 of 58

cases. The

efficiency of judges also has been put under the microscope. president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, said that in

the first six months of 2007, the average case time for the 12 criminal

court judges was 294 days. Six months later it was 176 days. To

boost transparency at the courthouse, more than 100 volunteers -- all

wielding bright yellow clipboards -- routinely patrol the courtrooms and

report on the performance of judges, prosecutors and sheriff's

deputies. The coalition also is pressing for greater accountability in

the Police Department with the creation of an independent police

inspector general. "They

are the model of civic engagement," President Bush's Gulf

Coast rebuilding coordinator, said of the group. "There is a new sense

of urgency (in New Orleans) and it's driven by the people who are

actually there." In

Washington, the coalition is seeking money to beef up the staff at the

Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office, buy better police technology,

expand drug courts and drug treatment facilities, and create a facility

to hold juvenile offenders overnight. They hope to get the financing

included in an emergency supplemental spending bill for the war in Iraq

and Afghanistan, which could emerge as early as next week in the House

of Representatives.

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