The gist: The numbers are grim. Lafayette has sustained two consecutive years of rising homicides and gun violence. There aren’t any easy answers, but here are a few approaches.
34 people were murdered in 2021. That’s a 47% increase in Lafayette Parish over 2020. Nationwide, homicides jumped 30%.
What’s causing it? The short answer is we don’t know, a fact that complicates how to respond.
Here are three responses:
- The “both and” approach. There is strong evidence that more policing deters violent crime, certainly in the short-term. But criminologists point out investments in non-police interventions also pay off but take longer. One idea is doing both: investing in police strategies like problem-oriented policing and social service programs.
- Eliminate blight. Reactivating abandoned buildings was found to correlate with a 40% reduction in gun violence, according to a 2016 analysis of programs in Philadelphia. Lafayette has more than 1,200 orphaned properties — many abandoned for years — with a heavy concentration in poorer neighborhoods.
- Summer jobs. Several studies have found strong links between youth job programs and reductions in both violent crime and property crime. Youth disconnection — the number of kids neither working nor in school — in Lafayette Parish is around 10%, according to this report.
What you can do. This is a community problem and demands a community response. Attend council meetings. Fire off a message to your council rep and let them know what you think.
One Comment
Lafayette needs continuity in law enforcement. Five chiefs in two years -acting or otherwise- contributes to deficits in police recruitment, training and retention. It also contributes to violence and crime in the community.
Other cities have worked through these problems through employing specialists and best policing practices.
The City Council should lead on this in the absence of leadership by the Mayor-President.