[Senate Hearing 110-271]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 110-271
RISING VIOLENT CRIME IN THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE KATRINA
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HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
JUNE 20, 2007
__________
Serial No. J-110-44
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on the Judiciary
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COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY
PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont, Chairman
EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania
JOSEPH R. BIDEN, Jr., Delaware ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
HERB KOHL, Wisconsin CHARLES E. GRASSLEY, Iowa
DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California JON KYL, Arizona
RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York LINDSEY O. GRAHAM, South Carolina
RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois JOHN CORNYN, Texas
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island TOM COBURN, Oklahoma
Bruce A. Cohen, Chief Counsel and Staff Director
Michael O'Neill, Republican Chief Counsel and Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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STATEMENTS OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Page
Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Maryland....................................................... 4
Cornyn, Hon. John, a U.S. Senator from the State of Texas,
prepared statement............................................. 44
Feingold, Hon. Russell D., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Wisconsin, prepared statement.................................. 46
Leahy, Hon. Patrick J., a U.S. Senator from the State of Vermont. 1
prepared statement........................................... 50
Specter, Hon. Arlen, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Pennsylvania................................................... 3
WITNESSES
Bell, David L., Chief Judge, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court, New
Orleans, Louisiana............................................. 13
Cannatella, Anthony W., Deputy Superintendent, Operations Bureau,
New Orleans Police Department, New Orleans, Louisiana.......... 15
Landrieu, Hon. Mary L., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Louisiana...................................................... 5
Letten, James B., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of
Louisiana, New Orleans, Louisiana.............................. 11
Stellingworth, Robert A., President and Chief Executive Officer,
New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, New Orleans,
Louisiana...................................................... 18
Vitter, Hon. David, a U.S. Senator from the State of Louisiana... 7
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Responses of David L. Bell to questions submitted by Senator
Kennedy........................................................ 29
Responses of James Letten to questions submitted by Senator
Kennedy........................................................ 34
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD
Bell, David L., Chief Judge, Orleans Parish Juvenile Court, New
Orleans, Louisiana, statement.................................. 37
Cannatella, Anthony W., Deputy Superintendent, Operations Bureau,
New Orleans Police Department, New Orleans, Louisiana,
statement...................................................... 40
Landrieu, Hon. Mary L., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Louisiana, statement........................................... 47
Letten, James B., U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of
Louisiana, New Orleans, Louisiana, statement................... 53
Stellingworth, Robert A., President and Chief Executive Officer,
New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, New Orleans,
Louisiana, statement and attachments........................... 91
RISING VIOLENT CRIME IN THE AFTERMATH OF HURRICANE KATRINA
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 2007
U.S. Senate,
Committee on the Judiciary,
Washington, D.C.
The Committee met, Pursuant to notice, at 10:49 a.m., in
room SD-226, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Patrick J.
Leahy, Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Leahy, Cardin, and Specter.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. PATRICK J. LEAHY, A U.S. SENATOR FROM
THE STATE OF VERMONT
Chairman Leahy. Good morning. I should note to begin with
that I really appreciate the witnesses who have flown up here.
I always appreciate the senior Senator from Louisiana, Senator
Landrieu, and, of course, Senator Vitter being here. But they
were in town, and I should just note that one of the reasons
this hearing was somewhat delayed this morning is that a lot of
the witnesses who were coming in last night arrived today.
As we know, when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and
the Gulf Coast nearly 2 years ago, no one knew the extent of
the devastation or how long it would take to recover from this
tragedy. One thing we do know is that the Federal Government's
emergency response was inadequate, uncoordinated, and left far
too many to suffer far too long after the storm. What we are
now going to examine is not so much all the mistakes that were
made in the response by the Department of Homeland Security and
others, but we are going to examine the latest challenge to
recovery from Katrina--the growing crisis of violent crime in
the city of New Orleans.
Violent crime in New Orleans has reached near-epidemic
proportions. It has emerged as the most serious threat to its
recovery since the storm. In the first 3 months of this year,
violent crime is up more than 100 percent compared to the same
time last year. New Orleans has lost nearly half its population
since the storm, but the number of murders, armed robberies,
and assaults are on track to match totals from before Katrina.
In the last 10 days, there have been eight more murders,
bringing the total this year alone to more than 90.
The murder rate per capita is now the highest in America,
more than 20 percent higher than in any other major city. At
its current rate, New Orleans has 12 times as many homicides as
New York City, 3 times as many as Philadelphia, and twice as
many as Washington, D.C. The crisis is so severe that National
Guardsmen and State police have been brought in to patrol the
streets.
The criminal justice system was battered by Katrina. We
know that. It is now strained to the breaking point. The New
Orleans Police Department has lost more than 500 active police
officers since the storm, and that is roughly, I believe, 30
percent of the force. The courts, the prosecutors, and police
often work out of temporary facilities. Only 4 of 11 jail
facilities in the city have been reopened, and, in some cases,
temporary FEMA facilities are even used to house inmates.
In its weakened condition, the criminal justice system has
struggled to keep order and bring justice to offenders. Last
year, there were more than 160 murders in the city, and so far
only one murder case has led to a conviction. Let me emphasize
that. One of these 160 murders has led to a conviction.
And the problem is not unique to murder cases. In more than
3,000 criminal cases last year, the charges had to be dismissed
and suspects released, at least temporarily, where in many
cases indictments could not be brought within 60 days, as
required by Louisiana law. The overall conviction rate is among
the lowest in the country.
There can be no question that restoring order and security
to the streets of New Orleans must be among our highest
priorities in the rebuilding effort for Louisiana and the Gulf
Region. Unfortunately, the response of the administration to
this crisis has been too little, too late. And while the
administration has written a blank check for the war in Iraq, a
blank check for the police departments in Iraq and so on, it
cannot seem to find the necessary support for those who need it
in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast here at home. I would like to
see the same amount of attention given to crises at home as
crises in Baghdad.
Two weeks ago, Attorney General Gonzales announced a new
violent crime program in response to the second year of FBI
statistics showing violent crime is increasing. A great
announcement, nice press conference, beautiful pictures. They
must have spent a fortune on getting the posters and all to go
with it. But it included no money at all for new State or local
police officers on our streets. The COPS program has been cut
out to send money to the police departments in Baghdad. And,
regrettably, Attorney General Gonzales failed to even mention
the violent crime problem in New Orleans, even though it is one
of the worst in this Nation.
Over the last 6 years--the administration has abandoned any
commitment to the COPS program even though in the 1990s it was
the model for reducing violent crime to historical lows in this
country. Again, we will send money to police forces in Iraq,
Iraqi police departments, which tend to end up just killing
each other, but we cut out the money for police departments in
America.
So far the largest response to rising violent crime in New
Orleans has come at the insistence of Congress, not the
administration. In particular, it has come from the leadership
of Senator Mary Landrieu, one of the witnesses we will hear
from. We welcome her and her colleague from Louisiana, Senator
Vitter. In January of this year, Senator Landrieu announced a
10-point plan to combat violent crime in the region. She laid
out a road map to restore the criminal justice system in New
Orleans and Louisiana by giving help directly to those who need
it most. It is a clear road map for success in battling violent
crime in cities such as New Orleans. Congress must continue to
lead on this issue if the administration will not.
Senator Landrieu, I want to thank you. You have helped to
provide $50 million for law enforcement reconstruction in
Louisiana as part of the supplemental bill just signed into law
this month. So let us hope we can send the signal that we can
fight violent crime in this country by working cooperatively
with State and local law enforcement partners. Then we can
bring back the vitality and pride of one of our Nation's
greatest treasures--the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast
region--and make it a secure and prosperous home for all its
citizens.
[The prepared statement of Senator Leahy appears as a
submission for the record.]
Senator Specter?
STATEMENT OF HON. ARLEN SPECTER, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF PENNSYLVANIA
Senator Specter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you,
Senator Leahy, for scheduling this hearing on this problem in
New Orleans. The Federal Government has responded, not as
promptly or as adequately as we should have, but I have had
many conversations with Senator Landrieu about this subject in
the Appropriations Subcommittee which I chaired last year, and
also with Senator Vitter. We have been trying to be helpful.
And I think to focus attention on the law enforcement problem
is very, very important and very timely.
It is always difficult to find additional resources, but
the Federal Government really ought to step in, in an area like
this to help out when there has been such a disastrous calamity
in the area.
I have been talking to United States Attorney Letten about
what has happened, and I am pleased to hear--informally we
talked about it before the hearing started--that there have
been some supplemental prosecutors assigned from other areas. I
think that is highly desirable, and I think more of that can be
done. We have an enormous Justice Department, a lot of U.S.
Attorneys in our cadre, and that can be done. I was in the
prosecution line at one time and had a big office and loaned
people. We had a big murder in Pennsylvania many years ago,
Yablonski and his wife and daughter. It goes back to 1969, a
small county in Pennsylvania, Washington County, and I loaned a
group of prosecutors to go and help out. So there is a lot of
precedent for doing that.
I regret, Mr. Chairman, that I am unable to stay. We are
very heavily engaged in immigration at the moment and trying to
work through the final stages of an agreed list of amendments.
But Senator Sessions has indicated his intention to come, so I
hope we will be represented on this side of the aisle. But I
will be following the testimony closely with staff and will
cooperate in being as helpful as I can.
Thank you.
Chairman Leahy. Thank you very much, Senator Specter.
Senator Specter and I first knew each other, incidentally,
in Louisiana when we were both prosecutors. There are days when
we think that was the better job of the two.
Senator Cardin, did you want to say something before we
start?
Senator Specter. Were you at the DAs convention in New
Orleans in 1971?
Chairman Leahy. Actually, I was. That was the time when I
got locked out of--
Senator Specter. What was that?
Chairman Leahy. We will talk about that after.
[Laughter.]
Senator Landrieu. And we need you both back.
Senator Specter. I was just regaling U.S. Attorney Letten.
Your DA was Jim--
Mr. Letten. Jim Garrison.
Chairman Leahy. Garrison.
Senator Specter. I try to forget that name. I was one of
the young lawyers on the Warren Commission staff, and DA Jim
Garrison had a different view of the matter.
Chairman Leahy. He locked us out of one of the buildings.
Senator Specter. Without detailing that, he opened up the
convention with a press conference lambasting the Warren
Commission, and the Board of the National DAs Association
criticized him for criticizing the Commission. And when the
Saturday night banquet came, we came to this beautiful hotel--
Chairman Leahy. It was locked.
Senator Specter.--for the festive occasion and we were--
Chairman Leahy. Locked out. As I say--
Senator Landrieu. Please do not hold that against us.
Chairman Leahy. It gets even worse. It gets even worse. At
that meeting I got elected Treasury of the National District
Attorneys Association, and they said, ``By the way, there is
this very large advance we gave to the District Attorney's
Office in New Orleans for that banquet. State's Attorney Leahy,
would you please get that money back?'' We eventually wrote it
off.
Senator Specter. I was glad we were only locked out. He was
locking up a lot of people.
[Laughter.]
Senator Specter. Promiscuously.
Senator Landrieu. It could have been worse.
Chairman Leahy. He was then succeeded by Harry Connick.
Mr. Letten. Yes, sir, he was, in 1974.
Chairman Leahy. And that is when I first--not that he would
remember it. I met his son, who was just a little child. Go
ahead. Sorry.
STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF MARYLAND
Senator Cardin. Mr. Chairman, I am very much interested in
the history here and your role in all of this. I thank you,
though, for holding this hearing.
Senator Landrieu and Senator Vitter had some of us down to
New Orleans not too long ago where we could see firsthand the
impact that the storms have had on the life of people in New
Orleans and Louisiana, and I tell you, until you have been down
there and you see firsthand the problems.
I must tell you, I am pleased we are having this hearing,
because as I read the back-up material for the hearing, I do
not think most people realize the challenges that you have in
law enforcement. Obviously, the effect of the storm presented
additional challenges for law enforcement as far as
neighborhoods and support systems. But when you realize also
that your jails were destroyed in many instances, that the
people that were responsible for law enforcement, not only the
police officers but those in the prosecutors' offices and in
the defense attorneys' offices were dislocated, it makes it a
real challenge for how the judicial system can operate and how
you can maintain the rule of law and law and order within the
community.
Obviously, the focus was more on displaced individuals and
rebuilding the levees and all these other issues, but the
challenges that you confront are certainly daunting, and I am
glad that we are having this hearing to see how the Federal
Government could be more helpful in restoring the type of
system that is necessary for the people of New Orleans.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Leahy. Thank you.
Senator Landrieu?
STATEMENT OF HON. MARY L. LANDRIEU, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE
STATE OF LOUISIANA
Senator Landrieu. I thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of
the Committee and the Ranking Member for what you have done to
date. And I thank you, Mr. Chairman, for focusing this hearing
on what we need to continue to do as we look to the future.
Thank you for inviting me and Senator Vitter to testify.
The disturbing and crippling increase in criminal activity
has overwhelmed the city of New Orleans and parts of the region
since Katrina and Rita and the unprecedented catastrophic flood
that ensued when the levees broke in and around the city. I
would like to welcome our constituents U.S. Attorney Jim
Letten, Judge David Bell, Police Commissioner Anthony
Cannatella, and Bob Stellingworth, who has really stepped up as
president of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, for
helping to organize a community-wide and broad effort to help
with this situation.
In 2006, over 160 murders occurred throughout the city of
New Orleans, giving the city the ominous distinction of being
the city with the most murders per capita in the United States.
In fact, the 2006 homicide rate in New Orleans is 31 percent
higher than any city with the next highest rate. It has been
heart-breaking, every murder has been heart-breaking for the
families, and it has spread fear in our community.
But, Mr. Chairman, this past January the situation in New
Orleans emerged as a kind of crisis that shook the very core
and foundation of our community. On the morning of January 4th,
a home intruder shot and killed Helen Hill, a local film maker,
and severely wounded her husband, Paul. Paul was a physician
who had come to the city to establish a medical clinic in the
heart of the city to treat the city's poor and uninsured.
When the police arrived at their home about 5:30 a.m., they
found Paul kneeling by the front door, bleeding profusely from
three gunshot wounds and clutching his 2-year-old son in his
arms. Helen's body lay nearby, having been brutally shot in the
neck. Her death was the sixth murder that occurred within a
span of 24 hours.
The next day our local newspaper, which has truly been a
champion of our response and recovery, ran a headline that
said, ``Killings Bring the City to Its Bloodied Knees.''
This event served as a catalyst for organized and renewed
community involvement, which for any community is always a
challenge under normal circumstances to have law enforcement
given the resources and coordination necessary to keep crime in
some of our major cities at bay. But our situation, of course,
as Senator Cardin has said, is much graver, and as you have
indicated, Mr. Chairman, your knowledge of our situation.
As this map shows here to my right, the surge in murders
has occurred across the city, but it is located primarily in
Uptown, which is the neighborhood that both Senator Vitter and
I come from, and the mid-city and downtown area. The red points
represent open murder cases; the blue points represent the
solved murder cases. But the one green point represents the
singular successful prosecution, and I know that our
prosecutors here will give some more details to that.
This year, as of June 18th, 91 murders have occurred. Given
the repopulation of the city, if this expands, our murder rate
will reach as high as 200 this year. In response to this crime,
this Congress quickly recognized the need to appropriate
additional money. Chairman Leahy, under your leadership, this
Congress appropriated $50 million in the Emergency Supplemental
bill for the whole Gulf Coast based on a formula of need--not
politics but need--to direct these resources to the areas that
need the most help.
That is in large measure what this hearing is about, I
hope, today--for our witnesses to talk about how best to use
these resources to supplement what is being done on the ground
at the local level. Among these objectives, these dollars will
ensure the full implementation of the New Orleans Anti-Crime
Plan, which is supported by Common Good, the Metropolitan Crime
Commission, Citizens for One Greater New Orleans, the City
Council. James Carter, City Councilman, has taken the lead at
the local level, along with our Federal officials, of which I
have great respect for Jim Letten.
Most significantly, the Emergency Supplemental waives the
Stafford Act requirement that localities match 10 percent of
the cost of disaster recovery projects before the Federal
Government pays the remaining 90 percent. This match has kept
law enforcement and other public infrastructure tied in a
morass of red tape for nearly 2 years.
I would like to show the picture of our headquarters. In
consultation with our local law enforcement officials, I
offered a 10-point plan. This is part of the plan, to waive
that match. This is what our police department is operating in
18 months after a flood. The highest crime rate in the United
States and it took us 18 months to get the 10-percent waiver
matched and 18 months to get the Federal Government to agree
that it was impossible for the city of New Orleans to repay its
loans within 3 years.
One of the reasons we could not step up the construction is
because the Federal law required any money we borrowed would
have to be paid back in 3 years. We are lucky just to be able
to have these trailers attached to the ground. God help us if
another hurricane comes.
Because NOPD still lacks central evidence storage, which
was in large measure destroyed by the storm, we are putting our
evidence in the back of an 18-wheel trailer. An 18-wheeler. I
guess if a storm comes, we have to roll our evidence room to
higher ground, and then when the water goes down, come back and
continue to conduct trials.
We asked for a COPS grant. We were basically turned down
because the COPS program is being dismembered. I hope that this
Committee can help understand how important helping our police
department is. That is what this hearing is about as well.
I want to thank the Justice Department for what they have
done with the meager resources prior to this $50 million that
we gave them, because they did send, at my request and Senator
Vitter's request, some additional DEA agents and FBI agents,
and I cannot tell you how grateful our community is for that
help. And I know that my time has expired, but let me just
conclude by saying I thank you for holding this hearing. While
our challenges remain large, the people of our city and region
are fighting for their home, for the safety of our home. We
plan to return, we are returning, and we need your continued
help as we make the reforms and improvements necessary.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Senator Landrieu appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Leahy. Thank you very much.
Senator Vitter, thank you for being here. And, Senator
Landrieu, I will make the same offer to both you and Senator
Vitter. If you care to join the panel up here, feel free.
STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID VITTER, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE
OF LOUISIANA
Senator Vitter. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and
members of the Committee, for this hearing. It is very
important. I want to simply make four simple but I think
crucial points.
Number 1, to state and restate the obvious, violent crime
is an extremely serious problem in Louisiana, particularly New
Orleans, and is a leading obstacle and impediment to recovery
after Hurricane Katrina.
Number 2, I want to stop and pause and thank Congress, your
leadership, others in Congress, and the administration for very
significant Federal help to attack this problem. It has really
been unprecedented with regard to Federal help to address what
is generally ordinarily considered a local law enforcement
prosecution problem. So thank you.
Number 3, I certainly want to urge all of us in Congress
and the administration to continue and even expand that Federal
help.
And, number 4, to me this is the singularly most important
point. What is just as important, I would say more important
than simply continuing that Federal help, we must leverage that
Federal help and demand as a condition of that continuing
Federal help that needed reforms on the ground in the community
continue to happen and are followed through to completion,
specifically within the New Orleans District Attorney's Office
and the New Orleans Police Department.
Let me go into each of these four points briefly.
First of all, violent crime, as we all know is an enormous
problem and an enormous obstacle to recovery. Again, it is up a
total of 107 percent in 2007 compared to the same period in
2006. As was recently reported locally, we have an annual rate
of 75 murders per 1,000 residents. Before Katrina, that rate
was 56 murders per 1,000 residents. So basically we have half
the people and virtually the same number of murders. It is
completely unacceptable, and, of course, previous speakers have
added to those statistics.
Point number 2, thank you for very, very significant
Federal help. Our Federal representatives in terms of the lead
agencies on the ground are superb. You will hear from Jim
Letten, our U.S. Attorney. He has stepped up and his office has
stepped up in an exemplary way helping with what are ordinarily
State court prosecutions; Jim Bernazzani, head of the FBI
office there, a great leader who has stepped up and become
extremely involved also; $55 million in the June 2006
supplemental bill for crime fighting in the Katrina region; of
course, a lot of that came to New Orleans; $24 million in the
recent 2007 supplemental bill, again for crime fighting in our
area; funding of innovative programs like work with the locals
to protect victims and witnesses of crime. Witness protection
was a huge need. The Feds have helped develop those programs
locally. Justice, FBI, others have sent additional agents down.
Mary mentioned DEA. That has been very significant. Violent
gangs, Safe Streets Task Force, DOJ has started that. That has
been significant. Helping to put together a violent offenders
unit in the DA's office, very important. So really
unprecedented help and thank you.
Point number 3 is, unfortunately, because of the situation
on the ground, that absolutely needs to continue and even be
ramped up, if at al possible. And I urge all of us within
Congress and within the administration to continue this focus
and this extraordinary help given extraordinary circumstances
from the Federal level.
I know you all are committed to that, and I thank you for
that. And that was recently displayed in the very recent
supplemental bill, but I really urge that focus and that help
to continue. And we have additional ideas for that. A community
prosecutors unit we have requested funding for. Placing
assistant district attorneys in each of the New Orleans Police
Department's eight district offices, very important. So please
help fund these items.
But fourth, and finally--and I will end with this, and I
really do think it is the most important point. This problem
ultimately will not be solved because of Federal resources
alone or because of Federal personnel. At its core this problem
is a local crime problem, which at its core is only going to be
solved by proper action and discipline and organization on the
ground, particularly within the New Orleans Police Department
and the New Orleans District Attorney's Office. So because of
that, I believe the single most important thing any of us can
do at the Federal level is use the Federal help to leverage and
to demand the necessary reforms and changes on the ground,
particularly in the New Orleans DA's Office and the New Orleans
Police Department.
At its core all of these problems pre-existed Katrina. Now,
Katrina made them worse, made them a lot worse, put additional
strains and stresses on the situation because of the
destruction of buildings and infrastructure and all sorts of
things. But that is not what is going on in terms of the
fundamental problem. Fundamentally, these problems pre-existed
Katrina and go to certain organizational and in some cases
political issues on the ground. And I urge all of us at the
Federal level to use the Federal help to leverage, to demand,
to enforce the changes, some of which have begun or are
ongoing, but none of which have been ramped up to completion to
demand those reforms and changes that need to happen,
particularly in the New Orleans DA's Office and the New Orleans
Police Department.
Thank you very much.
Chairman Leahy. I find it interesting that, of course,
people in New Orleans have to do much, but when you have things
like cutting out all the COPS money--and that was a Federal
program that worked very, very well, I believe. Crime came down
during that time. And I realize in this administration, at the
risk of being partisan, they seem to feel that if anything came
from the previous administration, it must be wrong, so they
just cut the money out--part of the reason being that we need
money, the administration says, for Iraq. But wouldn't you
think that a program like that would be helpful? I have talked
to mayors, Republican mayors and Democratic mayors, from all
over the country, and they say the COPS program has been one of
the most helpful things they have had in bringing down crime.
And that is a Federal--
Senator Vitter. Yes, Mr. Chairman, I have supported the
COPS program very consistently, so I would support that. But,
again, just to restate my last point, because in my mind it is
the most important, that alone, that sort of Federal help
alone, in my opinion, will not have us turn the corner in terms
of violent crime in New Orleans. We need to use that help, in
my opinion, to leverage it to demand the necessary reforms and
changes locally. And without that happening, I believe the
problem will not be solved. But we have an enormous tool in
terms of this Federal help if we can leverage that, use it to
demand those necessary changes.
Chairman Leahy. Thank you.
Senator Cardin?
Senator Cardin. Just very briefly, it takes a really
special person who wants to devote his or her life to law
enforcement or the DA's office. It is a sacrifice just to do
that. And then to work in a city that has unusual challenges,
as New Orleans had before the storms--and it certainly has been
made a lot worse after the storms--and then to show up every
day and work in a trailer or to try to get your evidence out of
a tractor-trailer to me is just unbelievable. And we expect
people to do this.
You have got to start somewhere, and I do think that you
are in crisis, and it requires some signals, including from the
Federal Government, to allow law enforcement to have the type
of facilities that they should have, to have the type of
trained personnel that they need, and, yes, we do need the
cooperation at all levels of government here. But I do not
think this is acceptable to have to work under these
conditions. It makes it so much more difficult for people to
show up every day and to be positive about their jobs.
Senator Landrieu. And let me just add, if I could, that I
hope that we do not use the need for reform, which is obvious
not only in the city and the region but in other places around
the country, as an excuse not to provide the resources that we
need to get the job done. This is an unprecedented challenge.
It is going to take unprecedented resources, and it is going to
take the focus of the Federal Government to help at the local
level to get the job done.
Thank you.
Senator Cardin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Leahy. Thank you very much.
If the witnesses for the panel could come forward, we will
get your name tags. We may have a roll call vote here. If we
do, I will leave and vote but then come right back. Before you
get too settled in, gentlemen, I am going to swear you in,
which is our custom. Don't get too comfortable, Mr. Cannatella.
Sorry.
Please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that
the testimony you will give in this matter will be the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Mr. Letten. I do.
Judge Bell. I do.
Mr. Cannatella. I do.
Mr. Stellingworth. I do.
Chairman Leahy. Thank you.
First off, let me thank you again for persisting. There is
probably nothing more frustrating, nor more understandable,
than flight delays because of weather. Every one of us who--
except for those Senators who can drive home in the evening,
Senator Cardin.
[Laughter.]
Chairman Leahy. But those of us who have to fly back and
forth to our homes on the weekend know what that is like.
James Letten has served as United States Attorney for the
Eastern District of Louisiana since April 2001. He has been a
Federal prosecutor for more than 25 years. He has served in a
number of positions within the U.S. Attorney's Office,
including chief of the Organized Crime Task Force and First
Assistant prior to being named U.S. Attorney. He was the lead
prosecutor in the investigation and successful conviction of
former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards in 2000. He was
recently awarded the 2005 United States Attorney General's
Medallion for Distinguished Service to recognize his leadership
following Hurricane Katrina. He is a native of New Orleans,
received his J.D. from Tulane Law School in 1979.
Mr. Letten, as both Senator Specter and I have said, you
have got the better job.
The time should not come out of my introduction of him.
Go ahead.
STATEMENT OF JAMES B. LETTEN, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE EASTERN
DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
Mr. Letten. Thank you very much, and good morning, Mr.
Chairman and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. I am
Jim Letten, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of
Louisiana, and it is a distinct honor to appear here before you
representing the outstanding men and women of our U.S.
Attorney's Office and Federal law enforcement.
I am particularly honored and pleased on both a personal
and professional note to be providing testimony here today in
the presence of and along with and to my home-State Senators--
Senator Mary Landrieu and Senator David Vitter--and I want to
thank you for the support you all have provided us, and it is
outstanding. Thank you very much.
I am also privileged to be here on this panel with three
men with whom I have had the honor of working very closely on
groundbreaking initiatives against violent crime in New Orleans
for some time. I might add that serving as U.S. Attorney in
this great district is a unique personal honor for me, a New
Orleanian born and raised with roots on both sides of my family
running many generations deep. In fact, our family's law
enforcement commitment to this area includes my great-
grandfather, who in the summer of 1898 gave his life in the
line of duty as a New Orleans police officer while apprehending
a wanted violent criminal just about four blocks from the
office which I now occupy. Sadly, some things do not change.
It is worth noting that prior to Hurricane Katrina, the
city of New Orleans grappled with one of the highest per capita
homicide rates in the U.S. In fact, just a few short months
before the hurricane, at the mayor's Crime Summit Breakfast, I
warned that the viability and even survival of our city--and I
think it still holds--will depend on the ability to control and
reduce violent crime; to deter public corruption--which has
gutted our economy and contributed to an enormous population,
business, and talent drain; and to provide a viable, lasting,
and top-notch educational system, especially for the poor, and
also to diversify our deteriorating economy.
As this city repopulated post-Katrina, particularly
beginning in the spring of 2006, our office, coupled with our
Federal enforcement partners, and NOPD have aggressively
pursued the administration's and the Department's violent crime
reduction goals under Project Safe Neighborhoods. Indeed, it is
this very population return, including individuals with a hard-
core criminal element, under severely adverse conditions that
resulted in 161 homicides in New Orleans alone for 2006, with a
population of only about 200,000.
Now, as of today, there have already been, I believe--and I
could be corrected by Chief Cannatella--90 homicides in Orleans
Parish this year--91. I am sorry. In attempting to help address
the violent crime problem, we in the Federal system place
particular emphasis on attacking drug-and firearm-related
crime. During the last two decades, the drug trade--and this is
important--in New Orleans has largely been limited to low-level
street trade, primarily engaged in by young men from poor
areas, who either alone or in very loosely knit, non-structured
groups or gangs sell drugs and violently engage one another and
settle disputes with firearms. In fact, New Orleans does not
suffer a traditional structured gang problem. In truth,
however, the loosely knit criminal element in New Orleans is
far more difficult to identify, penetrate, infiltrate, and
control than structured organized gangs would be.
A population of perhaps 20,000 to 60,000 migrant workers
also tends to put a certain amount of stress on the State,
local, and Federal enforcement in the region. And, importantly,
the vast majority of the homicides we have talked about and
other violent offenses must be handled by the local criminal
justice system as they simply do not fall within Federal
jurisdiction.
But we on the Federal side, nevertheless, see opportunities
to act boldly where our Federal resources can be brought to
bear, and we have and we will continue to do that.
We have made positive strides on the Federal level
investigating, arresting, indicting, prosecuting, and
imprisoning many of these individuals. But our crime problem
here is a result of a very complex landscape, including such
factors as: thousands of returning poor individuals with
inadequate, unsafe housing, employment opportunities, and a
huge drug culture; often inadequate schools, after-school
athletic and other opportunities, feeding juvenile crime
problems post-Katrina; an unknown number of unaccompanied
minors and returning drug dealers and violent criminals--and I
believe this is a critical point--who have chosen to return to
New Orleans to exploit dysfunction in the local justice system,
including a now notorious revolving door which has likely
attracted an inordinately high number of offenders in relation
to the relatively small population of the city who, if arrested
on local charges, often anticipate being released from prison
or their bond obligations within 60 days if formal charges are
not filed against them in that period.
Some 3,000 of these Rule 701 releases occurred in 2006
alone. Disturbingly, according to recent reports, over 2,100 of
these releases have occurred since January 1, 2007, despite
local commitments to fundamental but critical enforcement and
charging policies, which, if successfully implemented, should
seriously ameliorate these problems.
Further, despite a committed reform-minded police
superintendent and staff who I admire a great deal, NOPD still
suffers many challenges, including hemorrhaging of experienced,
competent officers to other agencies in cities, a phenomenon
which is now plaguing neighboring Jefferson Parish; continued
shortage of adequate jail space for arrested offenders,
including for juveniles; the need not only for permanent
headquarters and administrative facilities, so eloquently
addressed by our home Senators, but also integrated case-
tracking technology; and a critical paucity of mental health
and drug treatment facilities, providers, and services in both
New Orleans and surrounding parishes.
In calendar year 2006, our U.S. Attorney's Office produced
32 more indictments in drug and violent crime cases than in
2005, despite the fact that we had only half the population of
pre-Katrina New Orleans.
In 2006, our charges against serious immigration felons
tripled over 2005. In total, between January 1 of 2006 and June
13, 2007, our office has indicted 356 individuals on violent
crimes and firearms-related felonies, with an additional 708
individuals on serious drug-related felonies as well.
Chairman Leahy. Mr. Letten, we are going to put your full
statement in the record. The vote has started. I am going to
have Judge Bell speak now. We will have time to get his
testimony before Senator Landrieu and I have to leave for the
vote. And then we will come right back, and I have a number of
questions based on your testimony, which I think is superb.
Mr. Letten. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Letten appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Leahy. David Bell is the Chief Judge of Orleans
Parish Juvenile Court; J.D. in 1995 from Southern University
Law Center on the President's scholarship, established David L.
Bell Associates, attorney focused on legislative advocacy,
family law, and criminal law; elected juvenile court judge in
2004, became chief judge in 2005--a meteoric rise. With the
support of his colleagues on the bench, the New Orleans City
Council, and stakeholders across the system, he is leading the
juvenile justice reform efforts in New Orleans.
Judge Bell, thank you very much for being here.
STATEMENT OF DAVID L. BELL, CHIEF JUDGE, ORLEANS PARISH
JUVENILE COURT, NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
Judge Bell. Yes, sir, I will begin by saying thank you for
having me as well. I will be brief.
In a nutshell, we need Federal funding. We greatly
appreciate the $50 million that you all gave us. But for that
$50 million, we probably would not be here today to talk about
violent crime. But we need dollars with flexibility. Those
dollars were given for the sole purpose of restoring us to the
position that we were in pre-Katrina, and post-Katrina we have
different problems, we have different issues, and we need
different solutions. We need flexibility with that funding.
Broken windows is not going to work in our community.
Eighty percent of our windows are broken. You know, zero
tolerance is not going to work in our community because there
is not faith, there is not belief in our justice system. So you
cannot go into a community and arrest someone, have them
released, and then say, ``Now tell me who committed that
murder,'' because there is now a distrust of you.
We need a new approach. We need the ability to allow our
U.S. Attorney, our district attorney, our judicial system, our
police system to work together to create solutions--solutions
to our current problems, not solutions to our pre-Katrina
problems. But we cannot do it without your money, and that is
just an honest statement. We do not have the tax base that we
had pre-Katrina. We do not have the economic viability that we
had pre-Katrina. Twelve percent of juvenile arrests are for
possession of a firearm. Nationally, it is about 3 to 4
percent. They are going to go from my system to Jim's system if
we do not do something about it.
Twenty-eight percent of our arrests are for possession of
drugs and drug use charges. A lot of that is self-medication of
juveniles due to post-traumatic stress syndrome, and there are
no mental health facilities there. We cannot fund that $50
million because that is something that did not exist pre-
Katrina.
We had a great Weapons and Violent Elimination Court pre-
Katrina that was funded federally. We could not apply for
funding for that with this $50 million grant because we were
already receiving Federal funding, and the Federal funding for
it ran out. And now our weapons charges are up probably the
highest in the Nation.
We have a YAP program, a Youth Advocate Program, that has a
91-percent success rate that expires at the end of June that we
do not have funding for. A 91-percent success rate, but this
grant could not fund it and cannot continue to fund it because
it is a program that we did not have pre-Katrina.
We have a Report Resource Program that is intensive in
community treatment that has a 57-percent success rate for 689
kids that are enrolled in the program. We could not get funding
for it because it did not exist pre-Katrina. We have one person
full-time working that program, two people part-time working
that program, and we have a 57-percent success rate. It is an
excellent program, and we should have the flexibility to sit
down with our police, with our DA, with our U.S. Attorney and--
Chairman Leahy. Basically what you are saying, Judge Bell--
and I apologize I have cut you off before your time is up, only
because what you cannot see behind you is some lights going on
that indicate I have got about 5 minutes to get to the floor.
Basically what you are saying is not only do you need the
Federal funds, you need some flexibility. You are not
Burlington, Vermont. You are not cities across the country that
have not been devastated by one of the worst natural disasters
in history. You need the money, but you need flexibility in how
you use it.
Judge Bell. Yes, sir.
[The prepared statement of Judge Bell appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Leahy. We will be right back. We will stand in
recess.
[Recess 11:32 a.m. to 12:03 p.m.]
Chairman Leahy. If we could reconvene, Judge Bell, I cut
you off there because of the vote. Did you want to add anything
further? You have gone through--I was going to say ``hell and
high water,'' but I guess wind and everything else to be here.
Judge Bell. No, sir. I think you got the gist.
Chairman Leahy. Thank you.
I hope you understand, you and Mr. Letten and the others,
those of us who have even looked at--whether we have been in
law enforcement or education or anything else, just cannot get
around the staggering numbers of what you have to do.
Deputy Superintendent Anthony Cannatella is a third-
generation police officer, and correct me, Superintendent, if I
am wrong, on the New Orleans police force for over 40 years. He
was on duty and commanding the police response during and after
Hurricane Katrina, commands the Operations Bureau where he is
responsible for supervising more than 1,000 of the police
force's 1,200 officers, including the SWAT, Tactical, and
Mounted K-9 units, the Traffic Division,
and all the city's eight police districts.
Superintendent Cannatella, please go ahead, sir.
STATEMENT OF ANTHONY W. CANNATELLA, DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT,
OPERATIONS BUREAU, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT, NEW ORLEANS,
LOUISIANA
Mr. Cannatella. Thank you. I appreciate being here today. I
would like to thank you and Senator Landrieu and Senator Vitter
for having us here on behalf of Superintendent Riley, who could
not be here today.
Mr. Letten spoke to the causes of crime, and I think
everybody is well aware of the causes of crime in New Orleans,
so I will skip through that, and we will get into the problems
that the New Orleans Police Department is faced with.
At the present time, we lost so far 217 officers in 2005
since Katrina--that is post-Katrina--and 216 in 2006. As of
June 18 of this year, we have already lost 72 officers. We just
graduated a Police Academy class of 44 officers that are in
their beginning stages of field training. We have an academy
class currently with 45 recruits, and we have a second class we
are trying to put together that should have 50 recruits. Our
2005 high employee was 1,741 officers. We are down at this time
505 police officers until those two recruit classes graduate.
Given the losses that we suffer continually, when those
classes graduate, we will still be down 541 police officers. At
the current time, we are patrolling the city of New Orleans
with approximately 1,200 officers, and we are losing 30 percent
of our force a year. And the reasons range from working
conditions, loss of buildings, infrastructure in the
department, living conditions. Eight hundred police officers of
the New Orleans Police Department lost everything they owned in
Hurricane Katrina. Those officers' families are spread out--
most of them still are spread out all over the United States.
Due to some tremendous efforts of the New Orleans Police and
Justice Foundation to secure low-interest loans, several of our
officers have been able to purchase homes and move back in. But
at this time, we still probably have 500 police officers that
are not living in homes. They are living in FEMA trailers. And
they are living spread out. We had to drop our domicile
requirement and allow our police officers to live anywhere they
could find a house. We have officers that actually live in
Mississippi that are traveling daily from Gulfport, areas right
outside of Gulfport and Diamondhead, Mississippi.
Chairman Leahy. How far is that?
Mr. Cannatella. Ninety miles, a hundred miles. Twice a day.
Chairman Leahy. And then put in their regular shift once
they get there.
Mr. Cannatella. Yes, sir. And excuse me if I skip around,
because to me reading just does not always say it. I am an old
street cop.
Chairman Leahy. You are saying it pretty well.
Mr. Cannatella. Thank you. I am an old street cop, and I
would rather just get to the heart of the subject.
Besides that, we lost over 300 of our police cars in
Katrina that were flooded. FEMA has replaced approximately 200
of those police cars. With the city's finances being what they
are and not back up to strength, we have not replaced the fleet
that we were able to save in Katrina. So the average age of our
police vehicles is 7 and 8 years old. We are driving police
cars, Senator, that have over 175,000, 200,000 miles.
All of this coupled together, you know, people keep asking
me, ``What is the one thing we could do, Chief, to get your
department back up and running?'' And there is no one thing. It
is a lot of things. It is getting our officers back in standard
housing. It is raising pay to competitive levels, because every
police department for 500 miles around the city of New Orleans
is in our pond fishing. The hurricane had not left the city
yet, and we had several police departments from the surrounding
States that were recruiting our officers away from us.
The officers' families are spread out all over the United
States. They have to take vacation days to visit their
families, you know, once a month, if they are lucky. And when
they go to these other cities and find out that their wives, or
in some cases husbands, have better jobs in those communities,
better schools, housing, and the police chief there is holding
out the cash, the of course, is saying, you know, ``I think I
need to stay here with my wife,'' or like I said, some
husbands. And we are losing them that way. We have no way to
retain our police officers, and as you know, that 10-year
period of a police officer's career, that is the make-or-break
point. To us, your veteran officers, 10 years, and those are
the ones we are losing and we are not getting them back.
I really think that--and the buildings, we are still
working to this day--New Orleans police headquarters just
started being repaired. Twenty-two months after Katrina, we are
still working--all the bureau chiefs and the superintendent are
working out of FEMA trailers. Our special operations, tactical,
SWAT, traffic is working out of FEMA trailers. We have three
police stations working out of FEMA trailers. That is actually
police districts. Our crime lab just got up to 50-percent
strength by renting some lab space from the University of New
Orleans.
To me--and I think Judge Bell will champion this--one of
the telling problems we have, the New Orleans Police Department
Juvenile Division was housed in police headquarters, and it had
cells for juvenile arrests. Now juvenile prisoners that we
arrest are actually booked in a FEMA trailer and released to
their parents. Recently, we had a 14-year-old female juvenile
that committed an armed robbery with a gun. We had to assign
two female police officers to guard her over the weekend until
she could be brought in on Monday for a detention hearing. At
that point she had to be released back to her parents. This is
an armed robber that stuck a gun in a tourist's face and robbed
him. We have no place to book juveniles, and Judge Bell has
probably 19 beds to assign the violent juveniles. So there
comes a point where the judges have to decide who is the worst
of the worst, and those are the 19 males that we keep. And
unless I am wrong, we still do not have a bed--we called it a
``bed"--a slot to put a female prisoner.
Chairman Leahy. I understand. I spent 8 years in law
enforcement before I was in the Senate, and I have gone through
your whole testimony, all of which will be part of the record.
But there must be some days you do not even want to get out of
bed when you consider all the problems.
Mr. Cannatella. Quite a few days. There are quite a few
days I do not want to get out of bed, to be honest with you.
I will be honest with you, Senator. If you were in law
enforcement, you understand that the hardest thing a commanding
officer has to do is look at a young officer that is dead tired
on his feet or her feet, worked long hours, been in court, and
as they walk out of the police station, the person they just
put in jail for armed robbery is already walking out ahead of
them, getting in the back of a taxicab going home with their
mother. And it is frustrating, and to drive 80 to 100 miles a
day to and from work is ludicrous in this country. Again, I do
not think we could put our finger on any one thing.
Heroes? You know, my wife asks me every day, ``Why do you
still do this after 40 years? What, are you crazy?'' Yeah, I am
crazy. But you get to go to work every day with a group of
heroes that, to me--and I have got to be totally frank with
this entire country. I do not think the New Orleans Police
Department, the New Orleans Fire Department, and the New
Orleans Paramedic Corps has ever been given what they are due
for what they did for this country, because New Orleans is not
just a city, it is part of this country. And those three
agencies saved that city for this country. And I am telling
you, it was--and please do not take this wrong, but, you know,
it is the first chance I have had to say this on a national
level, and I have got to say it. There were no elected
officials, there were no other government agencies, there were
no civil service employees that were doing what the police,
fire, and EMS in the city were doing.
You know, people say the sad state of the young people in
this country. Well, I stand to differ. The young police,
firemen, and paramedics that I saw, I feel like this country is
going to be in good hands, because I saw heroes, kids, 20-year-
old officers. We had a female officer, Senator, that was out of
the Police Academy 2 weeks. She spent three nights on the roof
of her house in Lakeview because it was flooded. When she was
rescued, she helped save other people. She finally found a way
to call me at my district station and said, ``What do you want
me to do?'' I said, ``Go up in the country where your family
is, take a few days off, and call me.'' Two hours later, that
young lady was standing at my side saying, ``I am a police
officer. What do you want me to do?'' And she has not missed a
day's work since. And she is not the only one.
Chairman Leahy. You know, you said that that story has not
been told. You just told it. And I hope a lot of people heard
it.
Mr. Cannatella. I apologize for the emotion.
Chairman Leahy. As I have said, I have talked with Senator
Landrieu many times about this, our staff who has gone down and
everybody else, and if something like this hit my little State,
I do not know how we would ever keep the vital services going.
And law enforcement, the courts, those things are vital
services. So I commend you for it.
Mr. Cannatella. Thank you.
Chairman Leahy. Please, when you go back, tell the men and
women you command that I am proud of them.
Mr. Cannatella. Thank you. They will be glad to hear that.
They really will.
Again, you know, we keep hearing about reform, reform,
reform. Well, let me tell you, the New Orleans Police
Department is as reformed as we could make it. We have
implemented several reforms that we think are going to correct
some of the problems that every major police department in this
country has suffered. We had problems before. We certainly have
problems since Katrina. And we have reformed our police
department. Now it is time to give them what they do, and, you
know, we stand ready to take the challenge and fix the crime
problem. But it is going to take money. I hate to say that
because I hate to be a beggar, but that is just what it is.
Until we fix our police stations and our police vehicles and
our fire trucks, I do not see it.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cannatella appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Leahy. Thank you.
Robert Stellingworth is the President and CEO of the New
Orleans Police and Justice Foundation. Prior to that, he was
the Executive Director for the New Orleans Police Foundation.
Prior to that, he spent 25 years as a special agent for the
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, special agent in
charge for the New Orleans Division from 1994 to 1997, holds a
degree in criminal justice from Michigan State University.
Mr. Stellingworth, you have been very patient. Go ahead,
sir.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT A. STELLINGWORTH, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, NEW ORLEANS POLICE AND JUSTICE FOUNDATION,
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA
Mr. Stellingworth. Thank you. Senator, I wish to thank the
Committee and Senator Landrieu and Senator Vitter for this
opportunity to present a community perspective regards the
justice system and violent crime in New Orleans.
The New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation is a
nonprofit 501(c) 3 founded in the mid-1990s. Our mission is to
improve the criminal justice system in Orleans Parish through
partnerships with a special focus on the New Orleans Police
Department. Today we are also representing the views of the
NOLA Anti-Crime Coalition, a diverse consortium of over 15
community-based organizations whose fundamental goal is to make
New Orleans a safer place to live, work and visit.
The foundation was born out of community outrage in the
mid-1990's over police corruption and violent crime. Prior to
2005, almost all our efforts were focused on providing business
practice and philanthropic assistance to the New Orleans Police
Department. Although this approach had some level of success,
we came to recognize the justice system was just that--a system
in need of reform. From the $30,000 annual salaries for new
prosecuting attorneys to the severe underfunding of the
criminal and municipal court systems to the high level of
incarceration needed by the parish sheriff to sustain
operations, the system was at best a fragile Band-aid on a
major community injury that was slowly bleeding the city to
death. With consistent annual police arrest rates of well over
100,000 in a city with a population of less than 500,000, it
was becoming obvious efforts to simply arrest our way out of
the crime problem were not working. Finger pointing was popular
with judges blaming the DA, the DA blaming the police, and the
police expressing concern over the revolving door created by
the DA and judges. A large portion of the community was
disengaged, accepted the elevated levels of violence and
considered the antics of system business as usual. Other
segments of the community had grown to mistrust the police.
Hurricane Katrina washed all pretenses away and revealed
the underfunded system and fragile financing structure for what
they were. The storm also revealed the social ills that helped
drive the crime problem, social ills that will not be fixed
instantly and are shared with many other cities across America.
With the return of violent crime, a reenergized community
identified justice system inefficiency as an issue that needed
to be addressed.
Analysis conducted by the foundation has identified a wide
variety of systemic issues that feed these insidious
inefficiencies. A list so long it seems almost overwhelming. We
divide the issues into three separate areas: infrastructure,
human capital, and operational business practices. I would like
to take brief time to address each.
Infrastructure has been well documented by the testimony of
the other witnesses. It is the nuts and bolts of the system. In
spite of some success, we have simply failed to restore the
infrastructure needed by the justice system. NOPD remains in
FEMA trailers, as you saw. The superintendent is dealing with a
third projected move-in date to their previous headquarters.
Police districts operate from temporary space and in disrepair.
The DA is in a third temporary location with no hard date for
reoccupancy of his pre-Katrina building. Cramped space, I might
add. Baseline funding for the indigent defender program has all
but disappeared due to reliance on traffic fines which are not
generating revenue at pre-storm levels. The sheriff has been
forced to house offenders in tents; pre-release and witness
protection programs go unfunded.
Human capital keeps the system alive. Staffing is down
across the board due to mandated budget cuts in budgets that
were well below an acceptable level before the storm. The NOPD
has lost about 500 police officers from a cadre of 1,700-plus.
Recruiting has been at best difficult; attrition remains a
problem. The foundation documented over 80 percent of the
officers had significant damage to their homes to the point
where they could not return to them. Some still remain in
temporary living accommodations, as Chief Cannatella has so
eloquently put it.
There are success stories. The DA starting salaries are now
in the $50,000 range, and Federal grants have helped to
establish a violent crime prosecution unit staffed with highly
qualified attorneys in the $80,000 range. Over 500 first
responders have refurbished or purchased new homes using
private sector home loan subsidies averaging $5,000 provided by
the foundation. Police salaries have also been increased;
residency rules have been relaxed.
In spite of these gains, serious shortfalls and inequities
in staffing levels remain. Critical interim hurricane grants
and funding that support human capital resources will soon
expire with serious concern about the availability of
alternative funding.
Operational business practices before Katrina were under
serious scrutiny, and it is now generally acknowledged the
system was broken prior to Katrina. Basic police/DA
communication processes were flawed; state-of-the-art
technologies and integrated systems were not available.
Post-Katrina, manual processes remain, but with
significantly fewer support staff, thus creating long delays
and inaccuracies. A joint effort with widespread participation
has been started to automate business practices and information
sharing. Senator, I might add this is a leap of faith by the
various elements to come together to try to fix this system
using integrated computer systems, and we are proud to be a
part of that effort, and we are proud to be actually the
negotiators of that effort. And there is strong will in the
community if the funding is there to integrate the justice
system and improve these services.
As I have said, the task before us remains daunting, and I
have touched only on very few issues in this short time. I wish
to thank you for this opportunity to discuss the crime problem
in New Orleans. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Stellingworth appears as a
submission for the record.]
Chairman Leahy. Well, thank you, Mr. Stellingworth.
You know, I look at this and I listen to all of you, and I
have read your testimony. You see these grave problems with the
justice system after Hurricane Katrina. The murder rate is
worse than ever. Police are understaffed and working out of
temporary facilities. Prosecutions and convictions of offenders
is at an all-time low. The corrections system is way below its
capacity to even handle what is going through.
This may seem unfair, because I do not mean to exclude
other things, but let me start with you, Mr. Stellingworth, and
I will ask the same question of everybody else.
What is the most important, the Number 1 most important
issue facing New Orleans in combating violent crime? And what
can be done? Assuming you could direct the Federal response,
what can we do?
Mr. Stellingworth. Senator, I have the answer to that
question. The answer is to restore faith in the system. That is
a very complex issue. We must restore faith in the criminal
justice system in Orleans Parish, not only for the recovery to
continue but for the people to stay, for the infrastructure to
return them to normalcy. They need normalcy. We are losing
people. They are tired of crisis, Senator. They are tired of
being in a constant crisis mode. They want to get back to
normal. Restoring faith in the justice system and returning the
people and the human capital to normalcy I would say would be
the Number 1 task.
How you do that? It is going to have to be widespread
reform of systems. It is going to have to be financial support.
It is going to have to be continuing the Federal programs that
are there and allowing those programs to take full effect.
Chairman Leahy. You are saying these people need to get
their lives back.
Mr. Stellingworth. You got it. And the system needs to have
faith restored to it.
Chairman Leahy. Chief?
Mr. Cannatella. Pretty well said. To me the bottom line is
lives are just still upside down. It is nothing normal going on
in the city of New Orleans right now. Again, I can only address
the police response. I think the police department is tired.
They are worn out, they are tired, they have not had a break
since the hurricane. November 30th of this year, we are going
to lose 300 Louisiana National Guard troops that are going
back. We are going to lose Louisiana State Police officers that
are being called back. And on that date, the New Orleans Police
Department has got to stand up and patrol this entire city with
1,200 police officers when we did it before with 1,600.
And, again, there are vast areas that are still abandoned.
However, they still have to be patrolled. They still have to be
protected. And they are still being burglarized, copper pipe
and people's belongings. So the answer is we have got to get
our police department back up on its feet.
I think the faith and hope that he is talking about has to
start with the police. We are the first rung in the criminal
justice system. If we are not functioning, you know, the
prosecutors, the judges, the rest of it is not going to work
either. So we have got to get--you know, we are trying to
rebuild police headquarters to what it was. It was a 40-year-
old building. That dates me. It opened the day I started so we
are old pals. Why do we want to rebuild a building that is 40
years old? Why not just move it out of the way and just start
over and just build a new building?
You know, work environment is a big thing to everybody. No
one wants to come to work in a dump, in a trailer. And these
are not trailers built for what they are being used for.
Chairman Leahy. Judge Bell?
Judge Bell. I think each system needs to be allowed to
determine its funding priorities. I think that, you know, we
cannot--I think the chief here hit it on the head. You know, we
cannot just do what we did before, and we cannot be allowed to
use these Federal resources only on what they were used before.
We have to be able to prioritize our resources and our
expenditures based on crime patterns, you know, and communicate
with one another through interagency communications and
collaboration so that we can attack, you know, spikes in
murder, you know, so that we can attack--or place services in
areas that have high instances of violent crime or drug usage.
And we do not have the flexibility to do that right now with
the proceeds that were previously sent down. And I think that
is a large part of this problem. When you give me a dollar and
say, you know, you have to spend this dollar for this water,
and I need my medicine, you know, the water is not really going
to help me. And that is what is happening right now.
Chairman Leahy. Mr. Letten, you have had far more
experience as a prosecutor than most people who testify before
us here. What would you say to that question?
Mr. Letten. Senator, while I really agree very strongly
with everything these men have said and I agree with the basic
tenet, the basic premise that was enunciated by Bob
Stellingworth, whom I respect a great deal, that faith in the
system, the local criminal justice system, has to be restored,
I do not want to sacrifice candor on the altar of diplomacy
here. I have got to tell you that the local criminal justice
system, which focuses mainly around the District Attorney's
Office and its ability to prosecute, is only going to win the
hearts and minds and the faith and the trust of the citizens if
it becomes efficient and simply does a better job. And I have
got to tell you that while there are some fine men and women
there--and I do not criticize anyone individually--I will tell
you that we have fought this issue for a very, very long time.
For instance, let us talk about the judges. Until not a
single judge any longer reduces a bond of a person charged with
a violent felony unless and until he or she actually considers
the facts of that case and does not do it with a phone call,
there is going to be a problem.
Until the District Attorney's Office is given the type of
leadership, management leadership that actually creates, I
think, effective organization in that office and implements the
kind of prioritization of cases, communication with NOPD, and
internal efficiency in screening cases and charging cases and
preparing witnesses and treating victims and witnesses properly
and getting them to the table and earning them the credibility
that they deserve before the citizens and the courts and the
juries, I do not believe we are going to advance the ball.
I believe, if anything, that everything needs to be fixed
because, as someone once said--and it probably was not me. I am
sure I plagiarized this from somebody. You know, these are like
the pieces of a clock or the movement of a clock. In the
criminal justice system, if one of these entities--whether it
is a clerk's office, public defender, DA, or whatever--does not
work to full capacity, the thing slows down or stops. I
believe, however, that probably the most glaring issues reside
with getting the District Attorney's Office to actually
implement the types of reforms and the types of fundamental
promises and commitments to efficiency and communication and
prioritization that they committed to in march at a press
conference with the police chief and with Mr. Stellingworth.
And until that happens, Senator, I believe we are going to have
a real problem, and I believe that there has to be a commitment
there to make that happen. I have not seen it yet.
Chairman Leahy. Well, that is very similar to what you said
in the USA Today article that you were quoted in earlier this
month. I am trying to think of the exact date I read it. Can we
help with Federal funds in there? And I realize leadership--you
do not buy leadership. You create leadership. But leaving that
just for the moment, what about an emergency COPS program? I
mean, Judge Bell has said that, if there is Federal money, you
have to tailor it to the facts today, not the facts of what the
organizations were the day before Katrina. Would you agree with
that?
Mr. Letten. Well, I--
Chairman Leahy. I mean, you have added--you have hired more
prosecutors.
Mr. Letten. Yes, sir.
Chairman Leahy. The FBI, DEA, and ATF have sent more
Federal agents to New Orleans.
Mr. Letten. The Department, Senator, the Attorney General,
has given us--has found in the mechanism of the Department the
resources we need to, I think, exploit to our maximum advantage
our Federal jurisdiction. I cannot honestly say that we need
more assets than we have right now federally. But I will tell
you, Senator--
Chairman Leahy. I am talking about for the locals.
Mr. Letten. For the locals, that is another animal
entirely, and let me address it this way:
First of all, in terms of a COPS program--and, again, the
Department will have to speak to this--I believe the problem
with the COPS program would be, I think, potentially that it
takes a while to bring those individuals on board, and I think
also if you talk to Chief Cannatella, the problem in New
Orleans with implementing a COPS program and not another type
of funding mechanism would, I think portend issues of trying to
take out of an already diminished police force those officers
with that COPS funding and put them in these certain
assignments. And I think that logistically would be tough to
do. So I cannot necessarily be a proponent of that.
I will tell you that I do not believe that funding for, let
us say, a DA's office which really, really needs to have
assistance is alone going to make the difference. Let me give
you an example, Senator. Bureau of Justice Assistance, God
bless them, came to the table last year, went through our
Southeast Louisiana Criminal Justice Recovery Task Force, BJA,
Department of Justice sent 60 million bucks down to Louisiana,
$30 million of which hit the Greater New Orleans area--$5
million for the police department, $13 million for the sheriff,
$3 million for the DA. As a result of some moving moneys around
and continuously, I think, with BJA's assistance, redirecting
these moneys to try and get them effectively spent, as Bob
Stellingworth said, the DA has applied these moneys to help pay
the salaries of seven prosecutors who are making pretty
credible money for short periods of time, I believe 12-month or
10-month assignments, to screen cases, remove the backlog of
cases, and try difficult cases.
Now, they have helped. They are good folks, and they have
done a heck of a job. But, again, if you talk to these
individuals, you will also learn, I believe, that despite those
funds helping in paying these individuals, the problem--we
still have not seen a diminution in the 701 releases. Policies
that have been made in that DA's office which have caused the
DA's office, up until very recently, to reject--to not charge
individuals with bills of information who have been arrested on
serious drug felonies until they get full lab reports and to
reject the notion of charging these individuals with field test
reports that we have done federally, that has been, I think, a
very destructive policy, and I think it produced a lot of 701
releases, and I think it still does, although they have
committed to now reforming that.
The Attorney General of the United States sat next to me
when the DA at a closed-door meeting with agency heads
committed to do that. He committed to do that in a press
conference with Bob Stellingworth and the police chief. I do
not know if they have done that effectively yet. They have got
to do that.
I think there are some arcane policies that involve the
DA's office refusing to accept police reports for screening on
cases that are pending release unless and until those reports
literally contained all the information necessary in black and
white to prosecute that person, which meant that the DA's
office was rejecting reports and could not screen them and
decide what additional elements they needed satisfied. I think
that produced a horrible problem.
Now, what I am saying to you is--
Chairman Leahy. The chief seems to be agreeing with that.
Mr. Letten. So we have still got 2,100 Rule 701 releases.
What I am saying to the Senators, sir, is while funds, I think,
have made a difference and BJA has proven that and can make
somewhat of a difference, we are talking about hard policy
decisions in that office that have to change. And I am not an
elected official. I cannot make that happen. I cannot leverage
that to happen. But I humbly believe, as a career prosecutor,
that some of those decisions relative to organization,
prioritization, communication, and charging policies would
advance the ball a lot. And until that happens, none of this
other stuff is going to work.
Chairman Leahy. Have you seen Senator Landrieu's 10-point
program?
Mr. Letten. Senator Landrieu's 10-point program? Yes, I
have.
Chairman Leahy. I am telling her not to listen, but how do
you feel about it?
Mr. Letten. I think the 10-point program is certainly--
there are some fundamental--having read that program, I believe
that there are some very, very important basic tenets in there
that I think do advance law enforcement. I really do. And I
will tell you, Senator Landrieu and Senator Vitter both--and I
say this not gratuitously--understand the culture, understand
the problems we have, and I think have identified a lot of the
things that have to happen to help fix some of those problems.
I am focusing on what I think is the most glaring problem right
now.
Chairman Leahy. Would the rest of you agree with that, that
the 10-point program would be a help? And everybody is shaking
their head yes.
You know, there are certain basic things in law enforcement
that we all understand, whether you are in California of
Louisiana or Vermont or wherever else. But we also understand,
those who work in law enforcement, that there are always unique
situations to the jurisdiction, and one has to be able to
understand the jurisdiction to do it.
I was looking at, for example, Mr. Stellingworth, in
preparing for this, that you and your group have been active in
supporting the New Orleans Police Department after the storm,
but you have been raising money privately for police body armor
that FEMA did not replace after the storm.
I am interested in that. We have legislation that actually
a former Senator, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, and I put
together several years ago and that we fund every year to buy
body armor for local police. I have been in other parts of the
country, and a police officer will see me and sort of tap his
or her chest where the body armor is. But why--and I am a
little bit--this is such a basic thing today. When I was in law
enforcement, we did not see body armor that much. Today it is
basic. Why in heaven's name did you have to raise money for
that? Why didn't FEMA just do that?
Mr. Stellingworth. Senator, it would seem simple.
Chairman Leahy. They have got 18 ``gazillion'' dollars down
there. That is a technical term, but go ahead.
Mr. Stellingworth. Well, initially, there is a problem with
body armor that gets wet, by the way.
Chairman Leahy. I understand.
Mr. Stellingworth. And there are dates, so as a result, a
large portion of the body armor got wet in New Orleans. So
there was a need that was there. The city government, because
of its funding circumstance, could not afford it. FEMA
indicated there was a possibility they could reimburse at some
point in the future. But you cannot ask officers to worry about
whether FEMA is going to buy them vests in 6 months.
Chairman Leahy. Don't get shot at for the next 8 months
until the money comes in. That is what you are saying.
Mr. Stellingworth. That is exactly right. So the critical
became whether we should move forward. There were several
significant donors in our community that came forward, and we
have bought over $400,000 of bulletproof vests for police
officers. It is still not enough, I might add. But there still
is the potential for FEMA at some point to step forward. But,
bureaucratically, you need a vest today, once it has been wet,
once it has been determined that it is no longer functional.
You cannot wait. And the system does not seem to be able to
react to that, both at the State level, both at the local
funding level, and both at the Federal level.
Chairman Leahy. Chief, you wanted to add to that? I can see
it. I can almost--
Mr. Cannatella. Yes, well, let me tell you, before I was
Chief of Operations, I was Chief of Administration and Support,
and I dealt directly with FEMA on some of our recovery issues.
And bulletproof vests is a sore subject. They only wanted to
replace vests that officers had on during the hurricane that
got wet in that water, if you will, or officers that lost their
vests in the houses that may have left them during the
hurricane and they lost them.
Where our problem comes in is the vast majority of our
vests got wet, obviously got wet, because we worked in the
storm. They have expired. There is an expiration date on those
vests, and FEMA will not replace vests that have expired. That
is not their job, they said. And, of course, the city has got
its meager funding source and its budget to figure out what we
are going to spend our money on, and maybe at that particular
time the vests were not expired. So the budget has the vests
have.
Again, to me in this society, in this country, to have to
go ask a man that runs a chain of convenience stores to buy
bulletproof vests for police, and even more telling, recently
Mr. Larry Lundy, the owner of the Pizza Hut franchises, donated
one of his buildings and renovated at his expense to move our
7th District police station into to get them out of the FEMA
trailers they were in.
I am going to give you something, Senator, that I think is
going to really upset you. We actually have police officers
take up a collection every week to pay to have the port-a-lets
cleaned out that they are using in their police stations
because there are no bathrooms. Now, I did not want to go
there.
Chairman Leahy. OK, you make your point.
Mr. Cannatella. But the point is, again, that is where we
are.
Chairman Leahy. Frankly, if this was all going on 2 months
after the storm--
Mr. Cannatella. Oh, no. It is still going on.
Chairman Leahy.--it would be understandable.
Mr. Cannatella. Yes, sir.
Chairman Leahy. There is no excuse for this to be the
situation today. Absolutely no excuse whatsoever.
Senator Landrieu?
Senator Landrieu. Thank you, and I appreciate your line of
questioning, Mr. Chairman. I would like just to followup with a
couple of things. I think it would be a disservice to leave
this hearing with the idea that if we could just fix the
District Attorney's Office in New Orleans, everything would be
fine. And I know, Mr. Letten, that is not what you wanted to
leave the record to reflect.
Having said that, I understand that there are serious
reforms that need to be made in that office, and I am not as
familiar with the details as you are, and I appreciate you
being at the table to try to work that out.
But my question is this: You received, Jim, six additional
U.S. Attorneys, you received nine additional FBI agents and
additional Drug Enforcement agents that you have testified
yourself have made a significant difference in your ability to
carry out your duties and responsibilities, augmented your
work, which, as you know, I have testified publicly many times
has been excellent.
Do you not agree that local police officers and local
organizations and local courts also need additional resources
to help them get their job done?
Mr. Letten. Senator, I am certainly--and if I focus too
much like a laser on one part of the criminal justice system, I
certainly did not mean to suggest that fixing that, as you said
aptly, would fix the entire thing. I think I used the movement
of the watch metaphor, because they all have to be fixed.
I can't dispute, Senator, at all the need for additional
resources for the local--whether it is the DA's office for
salaries or people or certainly for a police department that
has been hemorrhaging police officers, a wonderful police
department that has been hemorrhaging officers because of
quality of life--
Senator Landrieu. Or for juvenile justice?
Mr. Letten. Or for juvenile justice, which I believe is a
huge looming problem which needs assets
Senator Landrieu. Or for the community groups?
Mr. Letten. Or for the community groups. I guess my message
was--because I think I did not want to--I wanted my message to
be one that I felt very strongly about and also one that
wouldn't necessarily simply overlap or underscore other valid
points. And that is, while those resources are necessary--and I
do not dispute and will never dispute what these fine men have
said these people need, because they are all absolutely correct
in terms of what they need. I will back it 100 percent. The
issue is, though, that I think what I do not want to be lost on
the Committee--and the public, for that matter--is that
especially with some of the entities out there, it is just as
important to make sure that the assets they have are used
effectively and efficiently as how much assets they get. And so
that is very critical.
Senator Landrieu. OK. Let me ask you this, then: Do you
think that Judge Bell can use his assets effectively?
Mr. Letten. Oh, I do. I do. I look to him very strong--
Senator Landrieu. Do you think Tony Cannatella can use his
assets effectively?
Mr. Letten. I have faith in these men and the organizations
they represent.
Senator Landrieu. Do you think Robert Stellingworth can use
the assets effectively?
Mr. Letten. I do.
Senator Landrieu. OK. And while no one person has authority
over the district attorney, who is an elected official, most
certainly the community can bring pressure to bear on the
reforms necessary. And part of our objective here is to get
resources to the community groups to better enable them to
provide good, solid information to the public so that the
public in this democracy can make good decisions about the kind
of justice system they want to have.
My second question to you, Mr. Cannatella, it is 18 months
after the greatest flood--one of the greatest floods in the
history of the country, and I think most certainly since 1927.
Has the Justice Department called you or the leadership of the
police force in any kind of special meeting to ask you how they
could help you to help your 800 officers that lost their homes,
their children who are without schools, where they were going
to get their health care from after they got off their 12-hour
beat in the event that they broke a leg or injured their head,
what kind of hospital? Have they ever had a meeting with you
about how to help you stand up--
Mr. Cannatella. Not on personal issues like that, no.
Senator Landrieu. None.
Mr. Cannatella. Crime issues only, yes.
Senator Landrieu. OK. I want to say for the record, I think
it is extremely disturbing that the Justice Department has not
had one meeting with the police association or the police
officers on the subject of the 800 out of 1,400 officers that
you have testified today have lost their homes, many of their
spouses lost their jobs, a health care system that has
collapsed, and yet continue to call press conferences with
fancy backdrops, as the Chairman said, about how much they
support first responders.
Am I mistaken that our police officers--I thought they were
first responders. I thought our firefighters were first
responders. I don't know how more basic you can get than
providing a bulletproof vest, a salary, a hospital bed in the
event that you get shot, a school for the children, or a roof
over your head. If I am missing something, I wish somebody
would tell me.
So I want this record to reflect that while I understand
that reform is essential--and I have spent my life, 30 years in
officer, fighting for it--I cannot let this hearing close with
the idea that if we would just fix a few things at home, that
this whole problem will go away.
And I will finally say, as Senator Leahy opened this, if we
can spend billions of dollars in Iraq training their police
officers, most certainly we can provide a roof over the ones
that we have in New Orleans.
Chairman Leahy. Gentlemen, again, I thank you for coming up
here. We have no control over the weather. Actually, we have
very little control over anything, but certainly over the
weather. So I appreciate you coming here.
I will keep the record open in case others have things to
add. And when you look back at the transcript, if you find
something you wish you had added, something further, or a
number was off or something, obviously we give you a chance to
add to that. Both Senator Landrieu and I also serve on the
Appropriations Committee, and I suspect this hearing is going
to be involved there, too.
Thank you very much.
[Whereupon, at 12:46 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.]
[Questions and answers and submissions for the record
follow.]
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