As a young New Orleans police officer, I learned that nothing we did mattered without the trust of the people we served. Trust opens doors, cools hot scenes, and brings witnesses forward.
Later, as a criminal court judge, I saw how professional coordination between NOPD and federal partners—the FBI, DEA, ATF, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office—could carry the most complex cases across the finish line to justice.
So I know that multi-agency efforts can work. But I do not believe National Guard troops should patrol New Orleans neighborhoods.
Let’s start with the facts. After a generational high in 2022, New Orleans turned a corner. Murders fell sharply in 2023 and dropped again by roughly a third in 2024, while nonfatal shootings and carjackings were cut dramatically—about half in many year-over-year comparisons.
Through 2025, NOPD reports violent crime continuing to fall at a double-digit pace, with murders down substantially even accounting for the New Year’s Day mass-casualty attack. In short: from the 2022 peak to today, the city has moved from crisis into an extended period of decline in the most serious offenses.
Over five years of New Orleans Crime Coalition surveys, the curve has bent the right way. After a period of heightened anxiety, the turn began in early 2023 and has since gathered pace toward stability and clear improvement. More residents now say crime is getting better or holding steady, and satisfaction with NOPD is climbing.
The University of New Orleans Survey Research Center’s Quality of LifeSurveys track the same shift: crime has eased as the city’s dominant worry, people report feeling safer at night, and ratings of police protection are trending up.
Policing alone isn’t responsible for these gains.
Community rooted crime prevention initiatives, including violence interrupters, youth mentorship, and restorative mediation that have expanded with recent federal support, build sustainability. But continued funding for these proven best practices is at risk.
We do not need the National Guard patrolling our streets. But if a limited deployment is ordered, it should be tightly scoped, time-bound, and civilian-focused—built to multiply NOPD’s effectiveness without putting soldiers into law-enforcement roles.
History counsels restraint. In New Orleans, Guard activations have been temporary and mission-specific—protecting the city during the 1979 NOPD strike, two Super Bowls, and providing essential longer-term security and support after Hurricane Katrina.
Those deployments were tightly defined, coordinated with civil authorities, and wound down as soon as the moment passed. That should remain the model.
If deployed, here are four things the Guard should do.
1. Free sworn officers to fight violent crime.
On a provisional basis, Guard personnel can assume non-law-enforcement tasks that keep too many officers off the street: report-taking hubs for non-emergencies, evidence intake and transport, fleet and facility support, traffic control at preplanned events, and scene security for major incidents.
Every hour shifted to the Guard is an hour an NOPD officer can spend on gun violence, carjackings, and repeat-offender cases.
2. Surge logistics and technology where they matter.
Use Guard capacity for operations support—staging and moving equipment, maintaining communications, expanding application of technology, and accelerating repairs to critical public-safety infrastructure (lighting, cameras, fencing, signage).
Keep this work squarely on the infrastructure side, where it amplifies police work without blurring roles.
3. Unclog the justice pipeline with JAG assistance.
The Guard’s JAG Corps can assist—within legal limits and under local supervision—with the administrative grind that slows justice: discovery organization logistics, digital-evidence handling, docket management, and witness scheduling.
Done right, this helps the DA and Public Defender move backlogs, shorten time-to-trial, and make room for the most serious cases. (JAG support should be administrative and process-focused—not prosecuting civilians.)
4. Attack the places that invite crime—through environmental crime prevention.
Deploy units to illegal-dumping sweeps in New Orleans East, clean and repair playgrounds and parks, trim sightlines, patch fencing, and relight dark corridors—coordinating with Sanitation, Parks & Parkways, and Public Works.
This is preventive policing by other means: cleaner, brighter, well-kept blocks reduce opportunities for crime and restore community confidence.
These roles come with conditions. A Guard mission should be time-limited and designed for a rapid off-ramp as civilian capacity recovers consistent with the Guard’s past, temporary activations for discrete missions in New Orleans.
The choice before us is not between doing “nothing” and sending troops to patrol neighborhoods. The choice is between performative force and effective crime prevention. Keep the Guard in reserve—and if they are deployed, use them where they add capacity without crossing into policing.
Stay disciplined. Back NOPD with the partners, tools, prevention programs, and targeted support that are producing progress—and renew, deepen, and expand them.
That’s how we finish the job and be safe.
Arthur L. Hunter, Jr., an occasional contributor to The Lens, is a former New Orleans Police Department officer, retired Orleans Parish Criminal District Court judge, and – most recently – a candidate for mayor.