NEW ORLEANS CRACKS DOWN ON CRIME

Surveillance Cameras, Random Drug Checks and More Are Planned to Ease
Residents' Concerns After a String of Slayings.

NEW ORLEANS -- Responding to residents' outrage over a sharp increase
in crime that claimed nine lives in the first eight days of 2007,
Mayor C. Ray Nagin announced a slate of crime-fighting initiatives
Tuesday, two days before a planned residents' march on City Hall.

"We are drawing a line in the sand and saying we've had it," Nagin
told reporters at a briefing held at the site of the year's first
slaying -- that of a man who was shot in the head on the evening of Jan. 1.

The measures, which Nagin said would be implemented immediately,
include increasing police foot patrols and installing 50 surveillance
cameras -- and up to 200 by the end of the year -- in crime hot
spots. Nagin pledged to expedite the prosecution of murder cases, and
said police would conduct random checks of residents for drugs and
alcohol between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m., when 30% of the city's violent
crimes reportedly occur.

Nagin was joined at the announcement by the police chief, City
Council members, community leaders and representatives of the
criminal justice system. He said they had all spent the last several
days meeting to devise a cohesive strategy to tackle crime.

"We are here to say collectively that one murder is too many," Nagin
said. "We will put all our resources to focus on murders and violent
crime.... everything we have."

The anti-crime program is also to include "community walks" by police
and city officials to promote residents' participation in the effort,
and a clergy-led No Way Out program to offer young people ways to
avoid getting involved in violence. Church leaders also pledged to
offer moral support to murder victims' families.

"We want to try and create a contagious compassion," said the Rev.
John C. Raphael Jr., who recently staged a hunger strike to protest
crime in his Central City neighborhood.

A Court Watchers program, in which residents would monitor murder
cases "from arrest to adjudication," was another facet of the plan, Nagin said.

"Everybody involved will come under the microscope under this
program," said Councilman James Carter, who organized a summit last
year on fighting crime.

Orleans Parish Dist. Atty. Eddie Jordan, often said to take too long
to prosecute murder cases, said his office had finished hiring staff
for a new violent offender prosecution unit, and had created a
homicide division to help bring cases to trial quickly.

Police Supt. Warren Riley promised his department would provide
Jordan's office with the necessary evidence and comprehensive police
reports within 28 days to help speed up prosecutions.

Riley added that his department was trying to attract veteran
officers from across the country to join the New Orleans police
force, which has operated under a cloud of negative publicity since
Hurricane Katrina.

On Tuesday, police officials announced the investigation of seven
officers accused of beating a community activist in the French
Quarter on Dec. 30.

And last month, six officers and one former policeman were charged
with varying counts of murder and attempted murder in connection with
a shooting on a city bridge in the turmoil that followed Hurricane
Katrina. Two other officers, charged in another alleged beating in
the French Quarter last year, are scheduled to be tried in March.

Also Tuesday, Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.) announced a 10-point
anti-crime plan that included a proposed increase in the number of
federal agents assigned to New Orleans, and more federal money for
police training and technology.

The announcements of the new crime-fighting measures came two days
before a march on City Hall planned for Thursday by residents who say
they are angry, frightened and frustrated by what they see as a lack
of action by city officials.

Joseph Victor, 41, and his grandmother Hattie Jackson, 79, who live
close to where the year's first slaying occurred, were standing on
the sidewalk across the street. They said many residents were living in fear.

"It's disheartening, because everyone is trying to put their lives
back together after the storm, and they can't even walk to the
corner," Victor said.

"These days, I don't go too far," Jackson said.

Neighborhood residents Terrance Garrison and Lamark Pierre, who
waited to hear the mayor's comments, said they would like to see
better opportunities for jobs, mentorships and recreation.

Both men were dubious about the fanfare over the new initiatives and
expressed skepticism that the measures, such as greater police
presence and community outreach programs, would actually bring change.

"You hear a lot about programs," Garrison said. "But after the
cameras are gone, you don't see nobody no more."