FileJefferson Parish, La. – Sheriff Newell Normand says Jefferson Parish saw its lowest crime rate in 38 years.
Sheriff Normand said, when you compare 2012 and 2011, crime took a 4.8 percent drop last year. The sheriff said the rate is the lowest for the parish since 1974.
aside from a national decline in crime, Normand said, he attributes the decrease to changes within the department over the last five years.
"We have broken the department from a vertical organization to a horizontal organization, where everyone in the organization takes responsibility and ownership of all crime, as opposed to the disciples they worked in before, meaning the robberies division, the narcotics division, vice, burglary," said Normand.
Jefferson Parish reported 33 murders in 2012, down from 49 the year before.
