Violent crime fell in 2025 for a third straight year in New Orleans, where Guard troops now patrol

NEW ORLEANS (AP) 鈥� Violent crime in New Orleans declined for a third consecutive year in 2025, police officials announced Monday as begin patrolling the city on President Donald Trump’s orders.

The crime figures were released less than a week after armed troops arrived in New Orleans, becoming where Trump has deployed National Guard members on crime-fighting missions. A separate that began in December has also deployed hundreds of federal agents in and around the city.

Local officials pushed back for months against the possibility of a Guard mission in New Orleans, pointing out that crime and that troops aren’t trained to arrest and jail people, much less investigate crimes and prosecute anyone. But Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said she supported the troops鈥� presence as a deterrent.

鈥淭he National Guard鈥檚 presence will certainly have impact,鈥� Kirkpatrick said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just grateful that crime is down, and I don鈥檛 care who gets the credit.鈥�

Trump sending 350 National Guard members to Louisiana months after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry requested a deployment to fight crime. Other cities where Trump has launched National Guard missions include and .

During a Saturday news conference, Trump credited the Guard deployment with New Orleans’ drop in crime.

鈥淲e have crime down to almost nothing already,鈥� Trump said. He added: 鈥淚 cannot imagine why governors would not want us to help.鈥�

Landry, a Republican, has said troops were needed in New Orleans due to 鈥渆levated violent crime rates鈥� even though crime has been dropping for years in the city.

Since 2022, murders, shootings, armed robberies and car jackings in New Orleans have decreased significantly, according to violent crime data released Monday by the police. Although New Orleans was considered the country’s per-capita 鈥渕urder capital鈥� in 2022, with 266 murders, there were only 121 in 2025 鈥� including 14 people who were killed in a on Jan. 1 last year.

By 鈥渕urders,鈥� the New Orleans Police Department is referring to criminal homicides, a department spokesperson said Monday. These include suspected homicides that are under investigation and haven’t yet been adjudicated, and excludes suspected suicides, accidental deaths, and justifiable homicides.

So far, the National Guard troops have been confined to the historic French Quarter, where troops were also deployed last year after the New Year鈥檚 Day attack.

Kirkpatrick said Monday that she would welcome Guard members in other crime hot spots beyond the French Quarter, adding that the deployment bolstered an understaffed 910-member city police force

鈥淚f they prevent a crime by their presence, I鈥檓 all for the safety of the city, as long as it鈥檚 constitutional and ethical,鈥� she added.

New Orleans’ Democratic mayor-elect, Helena Moreno, initially opposed the National Guard deployment but has since said she welcomes the federal government’s support for the city’s safety during major events in the , which runs into February.

A Landry spokesperson said the governor’s office did not yet have an answer for whether troops would be deployed beyond the French Quarter.

The drop in violent crime in New Orleans mirrors an overall drop in major U.S. cities since the COVID-19 pandemic, said former CIA crime analyst Jeff Asher, co-founder of the firm AH Datalytics.

鈥淲e鈥檙e generally seeing a dramatic drop in overall crime pretty much everywhere across the country,鈥� Asher said. 鈥淒eclines in New Orleans being no exception there.鈥�

___

This story was first published on Jan. 5. It was updated on Jan. 6 to delete an erroneous reference to cases of suspected manslaughter not being included in the city’s murder count. The police department says it does include such cases.

___

Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse 草莓传媒 Initiative. is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.