New Orleans Police Face New Challenge: Less Crime

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New Orleans was once one of the most violent cities in the country. Now it's one of the safest. And no group knows that better then the city's homicide detectives. These officers are contemplating cases that may never be solved in a city with almost no murders.

NPR's Laura Sullivan spent some time on the beat with one detective. She has this story.

LAURA SULLIVAN reporting:

Lieutenant Joe Waguespak (ph) used to have an office, a desk, a file cabinet and voice-mail. He had a team of investigators and a crime lab just around the corner. Now all his supplies are carefully spread out on the backseat of a beat up Taurus.

Lt. JOE WAGUESPAK (Detective, New Orleans): Notebook, a pen, police radio, a flashlight and a cell phone.

SULLIVAN: Since Katrina tore apart this city and its police department, Lieutenant Waguespak has been spending most of his days inside this car, a pack of Marlboro Lights on the dash and comb tucked into the visor.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: I just got this, it's kind of a wreck, but I haven't had a time to tweak all of the little problems this guy had with this car yet.

SULLIVAN: The seatbelt warning chimes constantly, but Waguespak never buckles up. On this day, he brings the car to a stop in front of a dilapidated building on the corner of what used to be a bustling business district.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: This is it right here, Polynesian Joe's.

SULLIVAN: A tattered sign bearing the restaurant's name dangles precariously in front of what was once a popular local bar. This is the scene of the city's last pre-Katrina homicide. A man killed one day before the hurricane struck.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: The owner of the bar was found with a gunshot wound to the head, and right when the investigation was taking off, naturally, that's when the storm hit, and everything was, you know, had to be put on hold.

SULLIVAN: The day before the storm, as much of the city was evacuating, a bartender found Joe Wong on the floor. Waguespak and other detectives ordered blood samples, looked for signs of a struggle, and sent the body to the morgue. They locked up the restaurant and figured they'd come back as soon as the storm passed.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: Coming back again wasn't an option, not in this particular case.

SULLIVAN: Now five months later, Waguespak has finally returned. But walking into the building, Waguespak looks dismayed. He finds a team of contractors gutting the building. All that's left of Polynesian Joe's is a pile of moldy wood and drywall in the corner. A new restaurant is already taking its place.

He says they will have to rely on the evidence they were able to collect before the storm. And old-fashioned gumshoe police work.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: All homicide cases are all classified two ways. A smoking gun, meaning we pull up on a corner, the guys there with a gun, or we have a handful of witnesses that say, that's the shooter, that's the killer, he's right around the corner, he's wearing a blue shirt, khaki pants, that's him. Or a case like this is going to take a lot of investigation, it's going to take a lot of legwork and some cases, it will take a little bit of luck. This at this point is a whodunit.

SULLIVAN: Joe Wong's murder was the 202nd homicide last year in a city that averages more than 250 a year. It's been almost five months since Waguespak's been able to do his job, investigate murder. In the days after the storm, he and other detectives rode around in boats and trucks rescuing people. In the weeks after, they patrolled for looting and violence.

Since then, Waguespak's been investigating the department's own, hundreds of officers accused of leaving their posts when the water rose. Waguespak says it hasn't been easy, but he says since the investigations started, there's been a lot more trust among the officers.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: Because you know, you feel like if I'm out here, you know, doing what I'm supposed to do, and if somebody just don't show up for two weeks or three weeks and after things settle down, and nothing happens, I'm an idiot. But that was proven that, they really appreciated the people that stayed and the ones that didn't stay, well, they were disciplined accordingly.

SULLIVAN: At first, there were 500 hundred officers to investigate. More than half were cleared right away. Many had been trapped in their homes like most everyone else in New Orleans. So far, 57 officers have been fired and 18 resigned under investigation. 165 cases are still pending.

Now as Waguespak and his detectives return to murder, they have to piece together what remains of their old cases. The storm destroyed countless case files, the police evidence room, and the crime lab.

As Waguespak stops in front of the department's old headquarters and crime lab, they are all but deserted.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: They got it pretty well gutted.

SULLIVAN: There's not a single car in the parking lot outside the lab.

Lt. WAGUESPACK: This was a state-of-the-art building with the -- not only the building itself, but the equipment and everything else. I think we had probably one of the better crime labs in the country before.

SULLIVAN: Now when there's a crime, officers have to drive the blood, DNA and fingerprint samples out to surrounding parishes. They have no place of their own.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: Well, it will come back. It will come back.

SULLIVAN: It's mid-afternoon when we pull up in front of the Royal Sonesta Hotel, a New Orleans landmark on Bourbon Street. This is the new police headquarters. The lobby is covered in pink marble, granite fountains, and plus couches.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: Not bad accommodations.

SULLIVAN: A fancy sign points the way to the police department as if announcing a wedding reception.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: This room over here is the Esplanade Room. It is the temporary office for the district attorney. That's all the district attorney prosecutors. Hey, sweetie. That's Chief McNoris's office in the back. She's the lady in the blue. And this back here is her office. And on the other side over there, that's the superintendent's temporary office over here.

SULLIVAN: What Lt. Waguespak is calling offices are really just tables covered in gold lamay cloth. Little folded signs note the department, Eighth District, Fourth District, Payroll.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: That's Captain Quinton.

SULLIVAN: Captain Juan Quinton tells Waguespak that three Katrina evacuees have been arrested on murder charges in Oklahoma and asked him to look into it.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: If you get any other calls from it, Captain, just let me know. I'm sure the commanders will be calling in if Oklahoma City is looking for us.

SULLIVAN: In fact, much of the homicide work in the office these days is focused on helping out police in other cities who have arrested New Orleans evacuees. Captain Quinton says that's because murder is rare in New Orleans now.

Captain JUAN QUINTON (NOPD): The big difference right now is the lack of crime. I mean, we are dealing with a time, an unprecedented period of time that we don't have crime. We are looking at 80 and 90 percent reductions in crime right now.

SULLIVAN: There have been 12 murders in New Orleans since the storm. Twelve is a long way from the hundred killings this city had during the same period last year. Lieutenant Waguespak gets back into his mobile office. There are 38 missed calls on his cell phone. That's from just the hour or so he was at headquarters. Many are from guys he's trying to get detailed back to his homicide unit. It turns out they are just as anxious as he is to get back to the job of solving murder.

Lt. WAGUESPAK: Either you love it or you just can't stomach it. There's no in between. You either hate it or love it. You just can't like it a little bit, you know. No matter what other job you go to, whatever rank you go to, you never get it out of your blood.

SULLIVAN: Lieutenant Joe Waguespack is an optimist. He's sure the department's better today than it was before the storm. But what he's less certain about is New Orleans, what it will look like a year from now, whether people will return, or whether there will still be a need for a team of homicide detectives in a city with so few homicides.

Laura Sullivan, NPR News.

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