New Orleans PD Given Authority to Shut Down Crime-Magnet Businesses
The city has become America's 'Murder Capital'

New Orleans Police Department given authority to shut down businesses found harboring violent crime

New Orleans is in the midst of a violent crime wave and a police staffing shortage

The New Orleans Police Department can now shutter businesses that are harboring "violent and serious crime," after the city council unanimously approved an ordinance aimed at cutting skyrocketing crime in the city.

The council unanimously approved the "padlock" ordinance on Thursday, which gives the city's police department the ability to begin the shuttering process for businesses that knowingly and repeatedly harbor crime. Moreno, who authored the ordinance, said the police chief can now suspend licenses of "chronic nuisance businesses that harbor violent and serious crime."

The council debated the ordinance on Thursday, with some critics saying it could unfairly target businesses. Moreno pushed back, saying businesses would be given ample warning, the opportunity to remedy the problems, as well as due process during court hearings, Fox 8 reported.

The city will define chronic nuisance as when a business repeatedly fails to address drug, theft, and violent crimes at their establishments in a timely manner, according to Fox 8.

The law will only apply to businesses, not residential buildings, and will also include tracking the racial breakdown of businesses that are shuttered. Under the law, businesses will be shuttered for up to two years and could lead to civil penalties for business owners.

New Orleans has been battered by a crime wave in recent months and recorded a sky-high homicide rate in 2022. In September, New Orleans unseated St. Louis as America's "Murder Capital," recording 52 homicides per 100,000 residents. St. Louis, which has long been ranked and considered one of the country's most dangerous cities, had 45 homicides per 100,000 residents that same month. foxbusiness.com


Bay Area Plagued by Power Tool Heists - Fueld by the Online Marketplace
Thieves targeting power tools worth up to $50k in latest Bay Area crime wave
The truck-jacking at gunpoint was one in a string of power-tool heists in the Bay Area last year, a crime that appears to be surging and growing more brazen, leaving some contractors in a state of perpetual anxiety.

Fears are so raw in the East Bay that at a recent meeting of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association, board member Spencer Ferguson, of Mr. Rooter Plumbing, in Oakland, implored his peers to pool their money and hire a security consultant for active shooter and self-defense trainings.

Oakland police say they saw an uptick in armed power-tool robberies over the past four months, and officers investigated four such stickups in January alone, making two arrests. Contractors who spoke with The Chronicle also noted incidents in Vallejo and San Francisco. Police departments in those cities were not aware of a pattern, though a spokesperson for San Francisco's robbery detail said that burglaries of construction sites are common.

Some cite evidence that thieves are using digital marketplaces to offload their stolen goods - possibly the same e-commerce sites that help fuel organized retail theft. Dzierzon insisted that e-commerce platforms are rife with plundered items, and said he has seen at least one other sign of an intricate crime ring in action: Weeks ago, he got a call from detectives at the Las Vegas Police Department, saying they had uncovered a $2 million cache of tools, one of which bore the logo for Dzierzon's company, PipeSpy. The tool was worth between $1,500 and $1,800, Dzierzon said.

While break-ins and thefts have always been a risk of doing business, plumbers and tradespeople say that in the past two years, perpetrators have become more methodical and aggressive. Thieves routinely stake out warehouses or follow work trucks to jobs, preying on workers who have to toil at a fixed location for a long period of time, leaving their vehicles and gear unattended. More and more often, the perpetrators are brandishing guns. sfchronicle.com


Big Cities Make Up 9 of 15 Most Dangerous Cities
Report Ranks America's 15 Most Dangerous Cities For 2023
MoneyGeek ranked 263 cities with populations over 100,000 people from most to least safe in this analysis. 

There's an ongoing stereotype that larger cities are more dangerous. Based on our analysis, we found that stereotype to be true: 9 out of the 15 most dangerous cities were large cities, while no larger cities (population of 300,000 or more) made the overall safest list.

Last year, St. Louis, Missouri was named the most dangerous city in America. This year it was once again named the most dangerous city in the US, with the highest per-capita crime cost on the list-$8,457.

Coming in second on the list of the most dangerous cities in America was Mobile, Alabama, followed by Birmingham, Alabama. "Mobile has been consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the country. The property crime rate and violent crime rate there is the highest in the country, only ranking below St. Louis for most dangerous (due to Mobile having less high-cost crimes like murder)," says Milnes.

The biggest surprise in the report? The lack of big cities on the lists of dangerous places, says Milnes. "The surprises are that from everything you might hear about larger cities on the coasts being quite dangerous, cities like New York and Boston are not as dangerous as their reputations would make you think," he says.

See the Top 15 Most Dangerous Cities below
 

1. St. Louis, MO 2. Mobile, AL 3. Birmingham, AL 4. Baltimore, MD 5. Memphis, TN 6. Detroit, MI 7. Cleveland, OH 8. New Orleans, LA

9. Shreveport, LA 10. Baton Rouge, LA 11. Little Rock, AR 12. Oakland, CA 13. Milwaukee, WI 14. Kansas City, MO 15. Philadelphia, PA moneygeek.com  forbes.com

230 Law Enforcement Deaths in 2022
Down 66% from 2021 - COVID Caused Most Fatalities

2022 Line of Duty Deaths Statistical Review
Roll Call this month features a high-level overview of statistics relating to officer line of duty deaths (LODDs) in 2022. While 2022 saw a dramatic decrease in LODDs compared to 2020 and 2021, law enforcement continues to be one of the most dangerous professions in America. The data shown here demonstrates the massive sacrifices that law enforcement officers have made while protecting American citizens this past year.

Leading Causes of Death in 2022

In 2022, 230 law enforcement officers died in the line of duty, a 66% decrease from 2021. The cause breakdown from our four major cause categories are:



Full biographies, incident details, and tributes for each of these fallen heroes can be found through the above links. We encourage you to take the time to reflect on the impact these losses have had on their families, departments, and communities. mailchi.mp

 
Walmart Stores Targeted by Intentional Fires
Several Walmart Stores In Atlanta Affected By Fire. One Will Permanently Close.
There was bad news for Walmart shoppers in Atlanta this week with confirmation that one of the Walmart stores in Atlanta that was temporarily closed will not reopen. It was one of several stores that were closed due to fires in 2022.

Last August, a Walmart in Peachtree City, Georgia, was closed after a 14-year-old girl started a fire in the store's paper goods aisle leading to significant damage. Another Walmart in Atlanta was hit by fire twice in 2022.

In May a Walmart on Martin Luther King Drive in Atlanta was forced to temporarily close after a fire was deliberately lit in the store's clothing department. The same store was hit again in December with another fire set off in the store.

Just days later, yet another Walmart store in Atlanta was affected by fire this time in the Walmart on Howell Mill Road. Unfortunately for shoppers at the Howell Mill location, the decision has now been made to permanently close the store.

"After a thorough review of all factors related to our Vine City and Howell Mill Road stores, we have made the decision to reopen our Vine City location as a Walmart Neighborhood Market and permanently close our Howell Mill Road location. Unfortunately, a variety of economic headwinds existed at both stores before they were closed due to arson." - Walmart spokesperson bestlifeonline.com newsbreak.com
 
Read the D&D Daily's initial reporting on the store fires here

 
Riverton, WY Walmart Has One Of The Highest Theft Rates in Nation

Asheville sees 200% surge in break-ins amid violent crime spike
 

US: 104.4M Cases - 1.1M Dead - 101.5M Recovered
Worldwide: 676.2M Cases - 6.7M Dead - 648.6M Recovered

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 362  
Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 830

America's offices are now half-full. They may not get much fuller

Office occupancy hit a post-pandemic milestone of 50 percent last week, according to data tracked by Kastle Systems. Experts think this could be the new normal.

The tug of war over getting workers back to the office just reached a key milestone: 50 percent are back at their desks on average, the most since the pandemic hit in March 2020.

But that means major corporate offices are only half as full as they once were - and many experts think this could be as good as it gets.

Overall growth in office occupancy has begun to level off in recent months despite efforts by many bosses to get workers back more often, according to data tracked by Kastle Systems. Last week, office occupancy across the country's top 10 metro areas edged up to 50.4 percent of pre-pandemic levels, according to Kastle, which measures office activity through entry swipes.

But the return-to-office figures are unlikely to go much higher as flexible work becomes entrenched in the lives of white-collar workers, experts say. Some employees have resisted hard mandates to return: They've left for remote opportunities elsewhere or even flouted in-office requirements, flexing worker leverage while the labor market remains hot. In response, more companies seem to be moving toward acknowledging that the 9-to-5, Monday-through-Friday in-office job is over. More than half of U.S. jobs that can be done remotely were hybrid as of November, up from 32 percent in January 2019, according to data from Gallup.

"Office numbers have flatlined," said Nicholas Bloom, an economist at Stanford University who has been studying the evolution of flexible work. "Longer-run, work from home will clearly rise, as the technology supporting this is improving rapidly, driven by the surge in current levels." washingtonpost.com


Insurers Avoid Picking Up Businesses' Covid-19 Pandemic Costs

Policyholders have been trying to collect on policies for 'business interruption,' but courts have so far sided with insurers that argue the policies are triggered by physical damage to property, not the presence of virus

Businesses have long relied on insurance to cover losses from unexpected disruptions. But they have faced an uphill battle in trying to get carriers to pay out on one of the biggest ever: pandemic shutdowns.

Insurers that sold "business interruption" coverage have denied claims by companies that suffered through lockdowns or other fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, and many courts have shot down subsequent lawsuits. The presence of virus wasn't enough to trigger the policies, which generally require some kind of physical damage to property, the courts say.

Businesses, however, continue to litigate in hopes of a payout. wsj.com


U.S. plans to stop buying Covid shots for the public this fall

This winter's U.S. COVID surge is fading fast, likely thanks to a 'wall' of immunity

Council of Criminal Justice - Pandemic, Social Unrest, and Crime in U.S. Cities - Year-End 2022 Update
This report updates CCJ's previous studies of crime changes during the coronavirus pandemic, extending the analyses with data through December of 2022. The current study finds a drop in homicide, aggravated assaults, and gun assaults and a rise in robbery and most property crimes. The authors' conclusions have not changed: to achieve substantial and sustainable reductions in violence and crime, cities should adopt evidence-based crime-control strategies and long-needed reforms to policing.

The crime data were obtained from online portals of city police departments that provided monthly incident-level data for the period between January 2018 and December 2022.

It examines monthly crime rates for 10 violent, property, and drug offenses in 35 American cities. The 35 cities are not necessarily representative of all U.S. cities. Not all cities reported data for each offense, and the data used to measure the crime trends are subject to revision by local jurisdiction.

L A R C E N Y

Larcenies are thefts unaccompanied by force or breaking and entering. Thefts from motor vehicles and shoplifting are the two most common forms of larceny. The average monthly larceny rate exhibited a distinct cyclical pattern over time, as shown in Figure 10. The larceny rate in the 29 cities with available data was lower during the first year of the pandemic than during the prior two years. But this decline ended in 2021, and larcenies rose by about 8%, on average, in 2022 over the number in 2021, an increase of 39,858 larcenies in the 29 study cities. However, the number of larcenies remains 6% lower than in 2019, the year before the pandemic started.

R O B B E R Y

Robberies are thefts committed with force or the threat of force. The average monthly robbery rate in the 31 cities with available data was lower during the first two years of the pandemic than during the preceding two years, as shown in Figure 7. Robberies began to increase near the end of 2021; by the end of 2022 there were 4,143 more robberies in the study cities, a 5.5% increase over the number in 2021. However, the number of robberies remains 4% lower than 2019, the year before the pandemic.  counciloncj.org

Prepare for a Tidal Wave of Corporate Fraud
The Great Fraud Reckoning

The tough stock market will push some companies to paper over their weak performance by resorting to fraud.

Get ready for what will feel like an inescapable wave of corporate fraud.

With financial conditions tightening, the market is primed to put pressure on corporate balance sheets, tempting executives to cheat to meet Wall Street's expectations.

This is what happens when cash is harder to find - say, after a sustained decline in the stock market or an enormous increase in the cost of borrowing money. First, there is what Bank of America called "corporate misery" as forward-looking numbers come in lower than projected. (That's already happening.) Then that misery finds a company run by executives who think that by committing acts of fraud, they can obfuscate their dire financial situation.

The risk of running into companies that have moved from funk to fraud gets higher the longer financial conditions remain tight, Howard Scheck, a former chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Enforcement, told me. Now he's a partner at the advisory firm StoneTurn, where he leads accounting investigations for corporate clients facing allegations of fraud from regulators - like the people at his old job - or shareholders.

"I think we're going to be very busy this year," he said. businessinsider.com


Not a Good Mixture With 'Tidal Wave of Fraud' Predicted
Audit committee job creep taking its toll

With internal audit committees biting off more than they can chew, committee members across businesses are feeling the burnout.

Over two-thirds of directors across the U.S. think that the areas of risk overseen by audit committees have dramatically expanded in the 20 years since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

More specifically, 35% of audit committee directors believe that this job creep has put them in a position similar to the board as a whole when it comes to job complexity, according to a report from Diligent and Corporate Board Members released Thursday.

"The role of the audit committee has become unwieldy," said Dottie Schindlinger, executive director of the Diligent Institute. "The audit committee is beginning to look like the full board in terms of what is on their plate."

Overfull plates Moreover, the job has become significantly less attractive, with the role seeing turnover rates at an alarming level, Schindlinger said. cfodive.com


Cameras Like One That Captured Tyre Nichols Beating Are Multiplying Across U.S.

Cities including Memphis, Tenn. have installed thousands of cameras, but a debate continues over their usefulness

MEMPHIS, Tenn.-Surveillance cameras like the one that captured police officers beating Tyre Nichols have proliferated in the U.S. in recent years, even as researchers, civil-liberties advocates and law-enforcement officials debate whether they are effective at combating violent crime.

Most studies have shown that public surveillance systems in the U.S. don't have much impact on violent crime but can reduce property crimes such as thefts and break-ins, said Daniel Lawrence, a research scientist at the nonprofit CNA Corporation's Center for Justice Research and Innovation.

Such cameras also have helped increase the rates at which crimes are solved in some cities by providing video evidence, he said.

There is no recent public data on how many surveillance cameras are in the U.S., but researchers say the number is growing. A widely cited 2019 study by research firm IHS Markit projected the number would grow from 70 million that year to 85 million in 2021.

Most of the devices are owned by businesses and homeowners for security, according to the study, but some cities have installed cameras in efforts to solve and prevent crime, often over the objection of civil liberties advocates. Chicago has more than 30,000 cameras.

Steve Mulroy, the district attorney of Shelby County, which includes Memphis, said he understands "Big Brother" concerns, but defended the benefits of such a system.

"They do serve a useful purpose sometimes in not only in preventing police abuses in this case, but they're just, you know, fighting regular crime," said Mr. Mulroy, a Democrat. "Like all useful tools, they can be abused, and you need safeguards to prevent the abuse." wsj.com


The Move to Eliminate Cash Bail
4 Takeaways From PPI's New Report On The Bail Industry
Bail companies owe counties across the United States millions in unpaid forfeitures, the Prison Policy Initiative claims in a recent report that argues states and localities should end their use of money bail.

PPI gathered evidence from 28 states where its says bail companies avoided paying forfeited bonds. Here are four takeaways from the report.

Despite Criticism, Bail Cos. Maintain a Strong Presence in the U.S.

"We're a solution, not the solution," Padilla said of his industry. "If you eliminate the bail industry, you're going to leave the freedom of everyone that is arrested to the sole discretion of a judge."

Most states have bail industry operations. Only 14 states and Washington, D.C., have eliminated or restricted the use of commercial bail bonds, according to PPI's report.

PPI is among several organizations to cast a critical eye on cash bail. The American Bar Association has suggested commercial bail bonds in pretrial release systems, PPI points out.

Despite the challenges, PPI maintains that "it makes more sense for states and localities to end the use of money bail entirely."

"This, too, would face fierce opposition from the industry, but a major fight to end cash bail is more feasible than rolling back dozens of separate procedural advantages across 41 states and thousands of counties," the report states.  law360.com