AFTER
THE STORM
Our Continuing Work in New Orleans
08/28/07
|
|
| An
FBI SWAT team assists local law enforcement
in New Orleans in the days after Hurricane
Katrina made landfall in August 2005.
More recently, special agents from around
the country have been working with police
to tamp down crime and probe murder
cases. AP Photo |
Early
this year, we sent a call out across the
FBI for seasoned agents with backgrounds
as local homicide investigators to work shoulder
to shoulder with detectives in New Orleans
to help solve cases and tamp down crime.
By February 5, we had nine agents co-located
with detectives from the New Orleans Police
Department, with new ones rotating in every
few months, including investigators from
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia,
and Miami. They’ve responded to each
of the nearly 100 murders in New Orleans
since then, nearly tripling the success rate
of these cases.
It’s just one of our many
efforts in New Orleans since Katrina made
landfall two years ago Wednesday. Though
our main office in the city was destroyed—and
many employees lost their homes—we
literally stood our ground during the storm
and have been on the ground ever since,
working to combat a rising tide of crime
and corruption that has followed in the
wake of hurricane.
“This was a violent city before the
storm,” says Jim Bernazzani, Special
Agent in Charge of our New Orleans field
office. “It’s even more so now,
with fewer meaningful jobs and more crack
cocaine and weapons on the street.”
Working with officials in Washington, Bernazzani
has led a series of public safety initiatives
in the past two years to support area law
enforcement, including:
Violent Crime
- Established a multi-agency FBI
Violent Crime Intelligence Center that
integrates criminal intelligence to produce
strategic assessments for area law enforcement
executives that focus resources more
effectively and tactical assessments
that help street agents and officers
identify the most violent actors in their
territories;
- Sponsored a series of conferences that
enabled area law enforcement to recognize
the presence of Latin gangs, leading to
the first-time arrest of members of MS-13
within days of the conference and arrests
of members of the Latin Kings, the 18 th
Street Gang, and other Latin gangs;
- Initiated a series of community outreach
efforts designed to convince reluctant
citizens to report violent crime, including
speeches before civic associations, public
service announcements on local television
and radio, and messages on billboards and
community flyers; and
- Assigned special agents and/or officers
from our pre-existing Safe Streets Task
Force to the eight New Orleans police districts
and surrounding parishes.
Katrina Fraud and Public Corruption
- Building on the previous work of our
white-collar crime squad in New Orleans,
established an additional Katrina/Rita
fraud squad;
- At the request of the Department of
Justice, set up the Katrina Fraud Command
Center to centralize tracking of all hurricane
fraud information nationwide;
- Created and promoted a toll-free Katrina/Rita
hotline—1-800-CALL-FBI—to report
suspected criminal activity, logging more
than 17,000 tips to date;
- Helped secure 119 fraud indictments
and 73 convictions, saving Louisiana $2.5
million through recoveries, fines, and
restitution; and
- With billions of dollars in federal
aid pouring into the region, increased
our public corruption squads, leading to
69 indictments and 52 convictions and more
than $50 million in savings to Louisiana.
Our work, of course, continues. “We’re
here for the long haul,” says Bernazzani. “We’re
part of this community, and we’re committed
to this city.”
Resources:
-
Katrina Fraud Cases and Information
-
New Orleans Cases
-
2006 Interview on Katrina Anniversary
