NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A top New Orleans police official on Tuesday welcomed the possibility of a National Guard deployment in his city but pushed back on suggestions of rising crime rates and said he was unclear on how the military might be used.
Republican Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry is asking for up to 1,000 National Guard troops to help fight crime in his state, a request that comes weeks after President Donald Trump raised the potential of sending troops to New Orleans.
In a letter sent Monday to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Landry cited “elevated violent crime rates” in Shreveport, Baton Rouge and New Orleans and shortages in local law enforcement. But Hans Ganthier, the assistant superintendent of New Orleans’ police department, disputed that the numbers were up.
“Our crime rate is going down,” Ganthier told reporters.
New Orleans is on pace to have its lowest number of killings in more than five decades, according to preliminary data from the city’s police department. There have been 84 homicides in 2025 as of Sept. 27, including 14 revelers who were killed on New Year’s Day during a truck attack on Bourbon Street. There were 124 homicides last year and 193 in 2023, according to city figures. Armed robberies, aggravated assaults, carjackings, shootings and property crimes have also declined.
Speaking Tuesday to an audience of U.S. military leaders in Virginia, Trump proposed using American cities as training grounds for the armed forces.
His recent plans to deploy National Guard troops in Illinois and Oregon follow a crime crackdown by military personnel in the District of Columbia, immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and the deployment of troops to Memphis. The president says the expansion into American cities is necessary, blasting Democrats for crime and lax immigration policies. He has referred to Portland, Oregon, as “war-ravaged” and threatened apocalyptic force in Chicago.
“We collaborate well with anyone, whether it is the state police, federal government, federal agents, different parishes, and the National Guard shouldn’t be any different,” Ganthier said. “If they can help us, be a multiplier for our forces, I welcome them.”
Louisianans react to possible troop deployment
Landry’s request proposes a deployment of troops to “urban centers” around the state under a mission that would “provide logistical and communication support, and secure critical infrastructure.” He said operations would follow established rules for use of force and prioritize community outreach to ensure transparency and trust.
New Orleans City Council President J.P. Morrell said during a Tuesday meeting that he had been hearing from street performers and others who were concerned that National Guard troops would disrupt the city’s traditions, such as brass band parades through the streets known as “second-lines.”
“The last thing they want is the National Guard stumbling across a second-line and trying to do crowd control on their own,” Morrell said.
Louisiana’s Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy said that while National Guard deployments to Louisiana cities is “not a permanent solution,” he does believe it will help deter crime.
“Increased law enforcement decreases crime, no matter the color of the uniform,” Cassidy told reporters Tuesday.
Deployment prospect in Chicago adds to tension
Word of a possible National Guard troop deployment added to tensions growing in the Chicago area since a federal immigration crackdown started in the nation’s third-largest city nearly a month ago.
The federal immigration processing center in Broadview, a community of about 8,000 people just west of downtown Chicago, has been at the front lines of the immigration operation. It’s where hundreds of arrested immigrants are being processed for deportation or detention in neighboring states.
Armed immigration agents have used chemical agents and increasingly aggressive tactics against protesters that local police say are unnecessary, dangerous to residents and raise serious concerns.
Broadview police have launched three separate criminal investigations into federal agents, including for hit-and-run incidents and allegations that they fired chemicals toward a reporter.
“We are experiencing an immediate public safety crisis,” Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills told reporters Tuesday.
DHS officials dismissed the claims Tuesday as “bogus.”
Portland goes to court
In Oregon, Democratic Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed a motion in federal court Monday seeking to temporarily block the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard.
The motion is part of a lawsuit Rayfield filed Sunday, after state leaders received a Defense Department memo that said 200 members of the state’s National Guard will be placed under federal control for 60 days to “protect Federal property, at locations where protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur.”
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson and Oregon Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek are among local leaders who object to the deployment.
Arrests begin in Memphis
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday on X that the Memphis Safe Task Force, a collection of about a dozen federal law enforcement agencies ordered by President Donald Trump to fight crime in Memphis, Tennessee, is underway with 219 officers being deputized. Bondi said nine arrests were made on Monday.
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Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. Associated Press reporters Sara Cline and Stephen Smith in New Orleans; Sophia Tareen in Chicago; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; and Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.
