A National Guard deployment in New Orleans authorized by President Donald Trump will begin Tuesday as part of a heavy security presence for New Year’s celebrations. https://t.co/mFHzNoGtVy
— ABC News (@ABC) December 30, 2025
Preliminary NOPD data show 53 murders in 2025 as of Thursday. That count includes the 14 revelers slain in the Jan. 1 terrorist attack when Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a Ford F-150 Lightning down Bourbon Street hours into the year.
Fatal shooting incidents fell by nearly half through June, while carjackings declined by a third over the same period last year, the preliminary data show.
To Asher, the New Orleans-based founder of AH Datalytics, which provides analysis on criminal justice for police forces and other clients, the data echoes a national trend. A number of other hard-hit U.S. cities are also seeing steep declines in murders, he said. The common feature in New Orleans and elsewhere: a flood of attention and money — from the American Rescue Plan Act and other sources, public and private — aimed at reversing the surge.
“You have to always caveat that with the fact you’re still talking about one of the highest murder rates in the country,” Asher said of the positive trends. “To decline is great. You’re still talking about 100 tragedies.”
The Jan. 1 attack spurred a new level of security even for a city in full preparation to host the Super Bowl. That effort got underway before pop sensation Taylor Swift’s descent on New Orleans in late October. It included a state-led clearing of homeless from downtown; DEA-led drug sweeps along Canal Street; a campaign to boot unlicensed vendors from the French Quarter; and a swirl of state and federal agents.