Police cracking down on trash, sex
Quarter cleanup aims to scrub city's
image
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
By Trymaine Lee
Staff writer
The New Orleans Police Department
has embarked on an initiative to free locals and tourists from
three problems plaguing the French Quarter and surrounding
neighborhoods: prostitution, pan-handling and trash-strewn
streets and sidewalks.
Capt. Kevin Anderson, commander of
the 8th District, said a federal infrastructure grant has let
the NOPD pay for 100 hours of overtime a week for
"quality-of-life" officers to work additional
code-enforcement beats and to crack down on the local sex trade.
The initiative is dubbed Operation Clean Sweep.
"What we're trying to do is
clean the image of the city," Anderson said. "I'm not
just talking in terms of what residents and businesses have
asked for, but also what tourists see. Our initiative includes
not only going after street crimes like prostitution, drug
dealing and pan-handling, but people who aren't disposing of
garbage properly."
New Orleans' image has been
tainted lately, with an influx of out-of-town pimps and
prostitutes trolling the streets hoping to cash in on the city's
new population of men: an estimated 45,000 laborers in town
helping to rebuild the city.
Two weeks after one ranking
member of the NOPD called worker-saturated New Orleans the
"Super Bowl" for sex-workers, police have stepped up
their fight against vice crimes and lumped their efforts into an
overall initiative to clean the streets of grime.
Anderson said police have
arrested 51 prostitutes and a handful of pimps in the past two
weeks, including nine prostitutes and five pimps on Monday night
alone.
Police said hookers working the
streets of post-storm New Orleans often are arrested then let
out of jail in minutes.
An order by Criminal District
Judge Calvin Johnson that the parish prison release municipal
offenders means suspects must be released unless they have
active warrants, are charged with a crime against another person
or are involved in a drunken-driving case. Most of the suspected
sex workers are arrested on municipal charges, police said.
Anderson said police are working
with other arms of the legal system to keep prostitutes behind
bars longer. While certain criteria make arrestees eligible for
bond, judges have agreed to no longer write free bonds in
prostitution cases, Anderson said.
"It began with a
prostitution sweep," said Sgt. Jeff Johnson, an NOPD
spokesman. "Then it evolved into establishments cleaning
the streets and ridding trash around their business."
Johnson said teams of
quality-of-life officers, many who Anderson said will be
commissioned from other districts, will regularly cite
businesses that aren't in compliance with nuisance codes. A team
of 16 officers will work during the day on code enforcement,
while an additional 14 officers will help vice cops curb
prostitution.
Code breakers will be cited for
not maintaining store fronts, not ensuring that trash doesn't
remain on the curb for days at a time or not removing garbage
cans from the sidewalk after the trash has been removed.
Anderson said other city agencies
have come on board with the initiative, including the city
Sanitation Department and Criminal Sheriff Marlon Gusman's
office.
Anderson said police are working
with the Sanitation Department to develop ways to improve
garbage collection and increase the number of trash cans in the
city.
So far, police have been giving
businesses who don't comply with garbage ordinances
"friendly warning citations."
"If you see trash in the
street, and prostitution and pan-handling going on, it doesn't
put the city in a good light," Anderson said.
Anderson said though police are
using the Quarter, the Central Business District and the Marigny
to launch the initiative, it will eventually spread throughout
the city. But Anderson maintained that the city's image rests
largely on what people see when they come to the Quarter.
"It's the French Quarter
that is the footprint of the city," Anderson said.
"When New Orleans is recognized around the world by people,
they're often recognizing the French Quarter as New
Orleans."
. . . . . . .
Trymaine Lee can be reached at
tlee@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3301.
Original link:
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