Tackling and preventing crime in the communities most impacted by it, that’s what the DA’s office is doing with a new community initiative called "NO DICE."First WDSU analyzed the program. Now WDSU is speaking with other city leaders and community organizations who are joining the efforts to tackle crime through NO DICE. The NO DICE initiative is being led by the DA’s office. However, it’s going to take a continued collaborative effort from community organizations, faith-based leaders, governmental entities, and people who live in these communities to make it successful. “This is a holistic approach, what we would call a comprehensive, fully exhaustive, holistic approach, where we're looking at different disciplines all coming together,” former New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said. Different entities are all coming together for NO DICE with one common goal: prevent crimes in the communities most impacted by it, according to Harrison, who is now a consultant for the DA's office.“Yes, we look at data to determine where we should be, where are the most crimes being committed over a period of time? Then we look at the accountability data, well, how long does it take for this agency to respond and to fix their portion of what they committed to fix,” Harrison said.NOLA Coalition is one of many community organizations joining forces with the NO DICE initiative. Jim Cook, who’s one of the business council representatives for NOLA Coalition, said it’s because they share the common goal of helping fix communities. “There wasn’t a lot of coordination among all the entities and then when you begin to think about other city departments; code enforcement, sanitation, and others, what this NO DICE program does is bring all the parties together. It’s really been a very positive step for the city and has helped us to look at how we tackle what feels like a giant problem but when you start to break it down into specific areas, it becomes something much more manageable,” Cook said.The first area of business for NO DICE was the Claiborne Corridor in District D. That’s where councilman Eugene Green, who oversees it along with neighbors in that community, said the work done so far has already brought about significant changes. “Some of the problems of the past do not have to be problems of the future. We had a demolition recently of a long-standing blighted property," Green said.That property, originally called the Harlequin Theater, was built in the 1910s in Treme. It began as a segregated movie theater that transitioned into a Black-only theater known as the Clabon Theater. It eventually sat dilapidated for decades, becoming a hot spot for drug use and crime. In June 2023, coroners even had to remove a body from inside the building.“We also closed a homeless encampment which was a very dangerous situation for those who were in the encampment and also the residents around it,” Green said. The encampment that sat underneath the I10 bridge near Claiborne and Ursaline is something neighbors who didn’t want to be identified said they suffered with for years. “Well since they got rid of the homeless people it's been a little bit safer around here. You couldn’t do nothing without seeing a homeless person, you know, all the needles on the ground — the needles started from the bridge all in the neighborhood just needles like you had to watch your kids cause the needles were just lying on the ground,” a local man said. Cleaning up these communities known as hot spots will continue and leaders like DA Jason Williams said the next part of the city they tackle will depend solely on where residents express the most concerns. “We've gotten a lot of outreach from New Orleans East about some of the problematic apartment buildings that are breeding crime, that are not being well maintained. So maybe that's the next step and we're going to listen to the community in trying to answer that call,” Williams said. Lastly, community leaders expressed what they hope people in New Orleans take away after learning about the NO DICE initiative. “I think the people of New Orleans can begin to see that we are actually listening to them. And we are actually interested in fixing why something happened. So we can fix it. So it doesn't repeat, as opposed to responding to it after it happens. And I think the people will appreciate that much more than just seeing us come after they call,” Harrison said. “What I hope, New Orleanians are excited to see is the degree of community engagement that comes out of us looking at these neighborhoods, trying to address the root causes of crime, trying to address the environmental factors that might be leading to crime,” Shanks said. Harrison said it's unique for the district attorney's office to be leading such a community-led initiative but he believes it can eventually be used as a model for other DA offices throughout the state and country.
NEW ORLEANS —
Tackling and preventing crime in the communities most impacted by it, that’s what the DA’s office is doing with a new community initiative called "NO DICE."
First WDSU analyzed the program. Now WDSU is speaking with other city leaders and community organizations who are joining the efforts to tackle crime through NO DICE.
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The NO DICE initiative is being led by the DA’s office. However, it’s going to take a continued collaborative effort from community organizations, faith-based leaders, governmental entities, and people who live in these communities to make it successful.
“This is a holistic approach, what we would call a comprehensive, fully exhaustive, holistic approach, where we're looking at different disciplines all coming together,” former New Orleans Police Superintendent Michael Harrison said.
Different entities are all coming together for NO DICE with one common goal: prevent crimes in the communities most impacted by it, according to Harrison, who is now a consultant for the DA's office.
“Yes, we look at data to determine where we should be, where are the most crimes being committed over a period of time? Then we look at the accountability data, well, how long does it take for this agency to respond and to fix their portion of what they committed to fix,” Harrison said.
NOLA Coalition is one of many community organizations joining forces with the NO DICE initiative. Jim Cook, who’s one of the business council representatives for NOLA Coalition, said it’s because they share the common goal of helping fix communities.
“There wasn’t a lot of coordination among all the entities and then when you begin to think about other city departments; code enforcement, sanitation, and others, what this NO DICE program does is bring all the parties together. It’s really been a very positive step for the city and has helped us to look at how we tackle what feels like a giant problem but when you start to break it down into specific areas, it becomes something much more manageable,” Cook said.
The first area of business for NO DICE was the Claiborne Corridor in District D. That’s where councilman Eugene Green, who oversees it along with neighbors in that community, said the work done so far has already brought about significant changes.
“Some of the problems of the past do not have to be problems of the future. We had a demolition recently of a long-standing blighted property," Green said.
That property, originally called the Harlequin Theater, was built in the 1910s in Treme. It began as a segregated movie theater that transitioned into a Black-only theater known as the Clabon Theater. It eventually sat dilapidated for decades, becoming a hot spot for drug use and crime. In June 2023, coroners even had to remove a body from inside the building.
“We also closed a homeless encampment which was a very dangerous situation for those who were in the encampment and also the residents around it,” Green said.
The encampment that sat underneath the I10 bridge near Claiborne and Ursaline is something neighbors who didn’t want to be identified said they suffered with for years.
“Well since they got rid of the homeless people it's been a little bit safer around here. You couldn’t do nothing without seeing a homeless person, you know, all the needles on the ground — the needles started from the bridge all in the neighborhood just needles like you had to watch your kids cause the needles were just lying on the ground,” a local man said.
Cleaning up these communities known as hot spots will continue and leaders like DA Jason Williams said the next part of the city they tackle will depend solely on where residents express the most concerns.
“We've gotten a lot of outreach from New Orleans East about some of the problematic apartment buildings that are breeding crime, that are not being well maintained. So maybe that's the next step and we're going to listen to the community in trying to answer that call,” Williams said.
Lastly, community leaders expressed what they hope people in New Orleans take away after learning about the NO DICE initiative.
“I think the people of New Orleans can begin to see that we are actually listening to them. And we are actually interested in fixing why something happened. So we can fix it. So it doesn't repeat, as opposed to responding to it after it happens. And I think the people will appreciate that much more than just seeing us come after they call,” Harrison said.
“What I hope, New Orleanians are excited to see is the degree of community engagement that comes out of us looking at these neighborhoods, trying to address the root causes of crime, trying to address the environmental factors that might be leading to crime,” Shanks said.
Harrison said it's unique for the district attorney's office to be leading such a community-led initiative but he believes it can eventually be used as a model for other DA offices throughout the state and country.
