N O L A.C O M
NOPD sees ‘remarkable’ plunge in violent crimes
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S u n d ay, J u n e 28, 2026
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E LEC T ION 2026
LETLOW ADVANCES Backed by Trump, she edges Fleming to win GOP Senate primary She will face Democrat Jamie Davis in the Nov. 3 election
Focus shifting to proactive policing
BY MISSY WILKINSON Staff writer
Violent crime in New Orleans has fallen to its lowest level since the 1960s, and already, the first half of 2026 has extended the dramatic drop in homicides and shootings. NOPD recorded 38 murders through June 25, representing one of the lowest year-to-date totals the city has seen in decades. If that pace holds, New Orleans will finish 2026 with about 78 murders, nearly matching the 76 recorded in 1969. “We’ve seen a remarkable decline, and it’s the kind of thing we should be talking about,” said Jeff Asher, co-founder of AH Datalytics, who recently retooled the city’s public safety dashboards. “We are reaching 50-, 60-year lows now.” In 1969, though, New Orleans crime was on an upswing, prompting residents to “hide in their homes at night while criminals roam the streets,” then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Harry Connick said, according to a report that year by The Times-Picayune. The city’s population was 593,471 in 1970. Today, similar totals mark a welcome milestone in New Orleans’ continued decline in violence following a horrific postpandemic surge that made the city the nation’s murder capital in 2022. The downturn began in mid-2023 and has continued each year since. In 2022, between briefings at the scenes of gruesome killings, New Orleans police held news conferences touting the acquisition of additional crime-scene body screens and celebrating modest slowdowns in the bloodshed. This year, violent incidents that prompt media briefings have been few and far between. Recent news conferences by NOPD include one at the scene of an unsolved fatal stabbing that happened 45 years ago, and one touting a proactive operation to shut down a planned street “takeover” event in its tracks. “I’m not going to say we’re crime-free. But our crime is very low,” said Morgan Clevenger, president of the Fairgrounds Neighborhood Advisory Board and president of the First District Police Community Advisory Board. “We’ve been really deep in the last several years trying to get a handle on the other big public safety issue: speeding and crashes.” On Tuesday at the NOPD’s Gang Reduction and Intervention Partnership meeting, Mayor Helena Moreno congratulated the department and its partners for the
STAFF PHOTO By MICHAEL JOHNSON
U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow addresses the crowd at a watch party in Baton Rouge on Saturday after winning the Republican primary runoff for U.S. Senate. BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow fended off a tough campaign from state Treasurer John Fleming to win the Republican runoff for the U.S. Senate on Saturday and become the prohibitive favorite to be Louisiana’s next senator. Letlow captured the Republican Party nomination Saturday with the strong support of President Donald Trump — his endorsement of her in January to defeat Sen. Bill Cassidy prompted her entry into the race — and Gov. Jeff Landry, who raised millions of dollars for a super PAC that relentlessly attacked Fleming. With the victory over Fleming, Letlow advances to the Nov. 3 general election ballot, where she will face Jamie Davis, a farmer from northeast Louisiana who overwhelmingly won the Democratic Party runoff Saturday over business owner Gary Crockett. The victor in that race will replace Cassidy, a Republican from Baton Rouge who ran afoul of Trump and was eliminated in the May 16 Republican primary
ä See CRIMES, page 5A
Fleming
Davis
while seeking a third term. Letlow will be heavily favored in November because no Democrat has been elected to the Senate since 2008, and Republicans hold all statewide offices in Louisiana. D a v i s , h o w e v e r, vowed to run a competitive campaign. Letlow took an early lead Saturday night when the first returns were posted — from early voters — and never relinquished her
advantage. The Associated Press called the race at 8:44 p.m., 44 minutes after the polls closed. The AP called Davis’ victory at 8:09 p.m. Davis won 80%-20%. Letlow spoke to a jubilant crowd at Duplantis Design Group in Baton Rouge at 9:15 p.m., surrounded by her parents, her two children, her fiance Kevin Ain-
INSIDE ä St. Tammany voters approve nearly
all tax propositions. PAGE 7A ä Stephanie Hilferty wins Republican PSC primary. PAGE 8A ä Joseph Cao poised to keep BESE seat. PAGE 8A sworth and campaign aides. She thanked Trump, calling him “the greatest president this country has ever had.” She said later that she had received congratulations calls from Trump and Fleming. Fleming gave a concession speech surrounded by family shortly after 9 p.m. to a crowd of supporters chanting his name after the primary race was called for Letlow. “I’m going to be just as happy tomorrow as if I had won the election because my happiness does not depend on getting
ä See LETLOW, page 7A
SSpirit of 1976 — youu had to be there Memories of a red, white and blue New Orleans summer linger BYY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Sttaff writer
PHOTO By BURT STEEL
Two girls attend the Bicentennial parade to the Superdome in New Orleans on July 3, 1976.
WEATHER HIGH 94 LOW 78 PAGE 8B
Oh, to have been a kid in the su ummer of 1976, when America tu urned 200. New Orleans marketing executiv ve Ellie Hobson Rand, 60, vividly re emembers her Bicentennial skatebo oard, her older brother’s Bicente ennial edition Ford Pinto and the special red, white and blue Speedos her swim team — the Tulane
Greenies — wore that summer. Artist Rebecca Birtel Mardura, 59, remembers the colonial officer’s costume, complete with topcoat, vest, knickers and ruffle shirt, that her mom sewed from a Simplic-ity pattern for her little brother, Michael. Heather Harllee, 59, remembers baking a flag cake from the Betty y Crocker children’s cookbook she e had gotten that year as a present. “The Bicentennial, patriotic c fervor was ubiquitous,” said Harllee, a French Quarter property ownerr and manager, now with three grown n children and a grandson. “It was everywhere — the bumper stickers, flags. It was cohesive.”
ä See 1976, page 6A
PHOTO By ROBERT T. STEINER
The Navy’s Blue Angels streak past the Louisiana Superdome on the way to the U.S. Naval Air Station in Belle Chasse, where they performed for Air Festival ’76.
Business ......................1D Deaths .........................3B Nation-World................2A Classified ..................... 2F Living............................1E Opinion ........................6B Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
13TH yEAR, NO. 320