Beginning on Sunday, up to 75 additional New Orleans police officers will be on patrol, New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) Superintendent Shaun Ferguson said on Thursday, following a rapid escalation in violent crime in the U.S. city.  

Violent crime has surged across the U.S. this year, and New Orleans has the highest homicide rate of any major city, with about 41 homicides per 100,000 residents, reported The Wall Street Journal in an analysis on September 16.  

Although homicides in Chicago, Philadelphia and Houston occurred more frequently in the first half of 2022, the homicide numbers in New Orleans increased particularly rapidly. According to data compiled for the first half of this year by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a professional organization of police executives, 155 homicides occurred in New Orleans, far surpassing the 111 homicides in the same period in 2021. The numbers continued to rise in the following months. 

As of September 18, 2022, the New Orleans homicide rate was up 141 percent from the same period in 2019, with its number rising from 86 to 208. The shooting rate was up 100 percent, the carjacking rate was up 210 percent and the armed robbery rate was 25 percent, according to the Metropolitan Crime Commission.  

"Approximately 100 officers are retiring or resigning each year," City Council President Helena Moreno said at a city council meeting in July, "you cannot operate a department that's made for roughly 1,400 officers when it has less than 1,000."

Surging crime and weak law enforcement have contributed to New Orleans experiencing the highest increase in the homicide rate in the U.S. "We must be successful and creative in reimagining policing, staffing and deployment given the challenges we are facing today," Ferguson said.