When New Orleans homicide detective Andrew Waldron’s phone rings, he answers, no matter the time of day or night. One year, the NOPD lieutenant left his family’s Christmas celebration to go to a murder victim’s house after the survivors invited him over.
Part of it is a drive to be there for people who are suffering. But empathy has a practical side, too. A tipster may not always ring twice. And in a city as small as New Orleans, he said, the family he comforts after one killing may someday include a suspect of another.
Building community trust and collaboration is just one factor that the New Orleans Police Department now credits for a stark turnaround in a key measure of its success: its ability to solve murders…