ON THE WAY DOWN

A year ago, the murder rate in New Orleans seemed destined to spiral
out of control. By April 2003, murders were up so dramatically that
the city looked like it was on track to have 400 deaths by the end of
the year. That would have come perilously close to the highest murder
count of the 1990s.

Thankfully, that didn't happen.

By the end of the year, the murder rate had begun to drop. And figures
released by New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass Thursday
show that the downward trend is continuing. That is truly good news.
Even though killing slowed in the city in the last half of 2003, the
year's homicide total was 275. New Orleans had the highest per capita
rate among large U.S. cities.

If murders continue to fall, perhaps the city will be able to
relinquish that dreadful spot by the end of 2004. As the murder rate
falls, the quality of life in the city rises.

That is particularly true in New Orleans' most violent neighborhoods,
which the Police Department has targeted by putting extra officers on
the streets, working with federal prosecutors to round up drug dealers
and other crime-fighting techniques.

Superintendent Compass credits those beefed up efforts -- dubbed
Operation Full Court Press -- as the main reason that homicides are
dropping in a 7-square-mile area that police determined last summer
was the deadliest spot in the city. Assigning more than 100 officers
to the homicide hot zone and focusing on arrests of suspected drug
dealers no doubt did help lessen the killing there.

The efforts of ministers and other residents to keep the peace seem to
have taken root as well. Superintendent Compass says that police are
getting more help from the community, which is a good sign --
especially since reluctant witnesses have been such a thorny problem
for police and prosecutors. The year is still young, and violence is
an unpredictable force.

But there is reason to hope, for the first time since 1999, that fewer
people will die violently this year than last. And, for the moment,
hope is enough.