DDD hires off-duty officers to patrol

Less than a week after two shootings broke out on Bourbon Street, more NOPD officers are now patrolling the area. The officers are part of a paid detail, funded by the Downtown Development District. Local business owners are hoping the increased police presence helps stop the violence. 

On Friday night, two men were shot in the 100 block of Bourbbon amidst a crowd of on-lookers. 

For nearly two months, fewer officers have patrolled this block after a Department of Justice report criticized the paid detail system and NOPD Chief Ronal Serpas put an end to all of the work. Now, the Downtown Development District has begun paying off duty officers directly, to come in and work the 100 block of Bourbon, which is allowed by the police department. “The officers really know the streets, they know who should be on the streets and where, they just know when things are not right,” DDD CEO Kurt Weigle said. 

Right now the DDD only employs about one or two officers a day but once the Department of Justice and NOPD figure out the logistics of the new paid detail system, Weigle hopes to have ten or 12 officers on patrol any given day.

Raquel Marie is a bartender at the Alibi, which is right around the corner from the 100 block of Bourbon. She says the violence in that block has gotten out of control. “I think a lot of it has to do with Canal because a lot of really young kids just loiter in the weekend nights around Canal so that's probably a reason why,” Marie explained.

She says she’s worried about how the violence affects business, but she’s also worried for her own personal safety. “Being in the service industry, when I’m walking to my car at the end of a shift, and if some of these kids know I’m working in a bar, and I have cash, it can be dangerous, it can be really dangerous,” Marie said.

And that’s precisely the reason why Kurt Weigle says it’s so critical for the DDD to pay off-duty officers to patrol. He adds, losing more lives to violence, is simply unacceptable.