New Orleans police official says crime is down after governor requests
National Guard troops
[October 01, 2025]
By JACK BROOK and SEAN MURPHY
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A top New Orleans police official on Tuesday welcomed
the possibility of a National Guard deployment in his city but pushed
back on suggestions of rising crime rates and said he was unclear on how
the military might be used.
Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is asking for up to 1,000 National
Guard troops to help fight crime in his state, a request that comes
weeks after President Donald Trump raised the potential of sending
troops to New Orleans.
In a letter sent Monday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Landry cited
“elevated violent crime rates” in Shreveport, Baton Rouge and New
Orleans and shortages in local law enforcement. But Hans Ganthier, the
assistant superintendent of New Orleans' police department, disputed
that the numbers were up.
“Our crime rate is going down,” Ganthier told reporters.
New Orleans is on pace to have its lowest number of killings in more
than five decades, according to preliminary data from the city's police
department. There have been 84 homicides in 2025 as of Sept. 27,
including 14 revelers who were killed on New Year’s Day during a truck
attack on Bourbon Street. There were 124 homicides last year and 193 in
2023, according to city figures. Armed robberies, aggravated assaults,
carjackings, shootings and property crimes have also declined.
Speaking Tuesday to an audience of U.S. military leaders in Virginia,
Trump proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed
forces.
His recent plans to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois and Oregon
follow a crime crackdown by military personnel in the District of
Columbia, immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and the deployment of
troops to Memphis. The president says the expansion into American cities
is necessary, blasting Democrats for crime and lax immigration policies.
He has referred to Portland, Oregon, as “war-ravaged” and threatened
apocalyptic force in Chicago.
“We collaborate well with anyone, whether it is the state police,
federal government, federal agents, different parishes, and the National
Guard shouldn’t be any different,” Ganthier said. “If they can help us,
be a multiplier for our forces, I welcome them.”
Louisianans react to possible troop deployment
Landry's request proposes a deployment of troops to “urban centers”
around the state under a mission that would “provide logistical and
communication support, and secure critical infrastructure." He said
operations would follow established rules for use of force and
prioritize community outreach to ensure transparency and trust.
New Orleans City Council President J.P. Morrell said during a Tuesday
meeting that he had been hearing from street performers and others who
were concerned that National Guard troops would disrupt the city’s
traditions, such as brass band parades through the streets known as
“second-lines.”
“The last thing they want is the National Guard stumbling across a
second-line and trying to do crowd control on their own,” Morrell said.
Louisiana's Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy said that while National
Guard deployments to Louisiana cities is “not a permanent solution,” he
does believe it will help deter crime.
“Increased law enforcement decreases crime, no matter the color of the
uniform,” Cassidy told reporters Tuesday.
Deployment prospect in Chicago adds to tension
Word of a possible National Guard troop deployment added to tensions
growing in the Chicago area since a federal immigration crackdown
started in the nation’s third-largest city nearly a month ago.
[to top of second column]
|
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry speaks to reporters outside "Camp 57," a
facility to house immigration detainees at the Louisiana State
Penitentiary in Angola, La., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP
Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
The federal immigration processing center in Broadview, a community
of about 8,000 people just west of downtown Chicago, has been at the
front lines of the immigration operation. It’s where hundreds of
arrested immigrants are being processed for deportation or detention
in neighboring states.
Armed immigration agents have used chemical agents and increasingly
aggressive tactics against protesters that local police say are
unnecessary, dangerous to residents and raise serious concerns.
Broadview police have launched three separate criminal
investigations into federal agents, including for hit-and-run
incidents and allegations that they fired chemicals toward a
reporter.
“We are experiencing an immediate public safety crisis,” Broadview
Police Chief Thomas Mills told reporters Tuesday.
DHS officials dismissed the claims Tuesday as “bogus.”
Portland goes to court
In Oregon, Democratic Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed a motion
in federal court Monday seeking to temporarily block the Trump
administration from deploying the National Guard.
The motion is part of a lawsuit Rayfield filed the previous day
after state leaders received a Defense Department memo that said 200
members of the state’s National Guard will be placed under federal
control for 60 days to “protect Federal property, at locations where
protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to
occur.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek are among
local leaders who objected to the deployment.
The troops must complete administrative processing, which could take
up to two days, as well as three days of training on crowd control
and use of force before being deployed to federal buildings, the
Oregon Military Department’s director for government and legislative
affairs, Russell Gibson, told state lawmakers. The troops will come
from a military police unit and an infantry unit, he said.
It was unclear whether that processing and training would be
completed before a federal court hearing Friday in which a judge is
to hear arguments on Rayfield’s motion.
Calling up the state’s National Guard members for the mission will
cost the federal government at least $3.8 million, Gibson estimated.
Arrests begin in Memphis
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday on X that the Memphis
Safe Task Force, a collection of about a dozen federal law
enforcement agencies ordered by President Donald Trump to fight
crime in Memphis, Tennessee, is underway with 219 officers being
deputized. Bondi said nine arrests were made on Monday.
____
Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press reporters Sara
Cline and Stephen Smith in New Orleans; Sophia Tareen in Chicago;
Adrian Sainz in Memphis; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon,
contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
