Constant guard

Crime | Like vultures over a dead body, criminals ravage post-Katrina New Orleans, but the National Guard and federal agents are making a difference | Jamie Dean

NEW ORLEANS—In the lobby of the Holiday Inn Superdome in downtown New Orleans, a handful of sunburned tourists in shorts and flip-flops hover over maps of the French Quarter, planning their day. In a sprawling hotel conference room nearby, camouflage-clad Louisiana National Guard troops hover over maps of hurricane-ravaged neighborhoods, planning their day as well.

The troops' agenda doesn't include gumbo or jazz, but it does include helping the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) patrol a city enduring an officer shortage and a crime surge: The NOPD has at least 268 fewer officers than it did before Hurricane Katrina struck the city in 2005. Meanwhile, the department's first-quarter crime statistics show that violent crime is up 107 percent over the same period last year.