New Iberia Police Chief Todd D’Albor

It’s been one year since the New Iberia Police Department began patrolling city streets again, and the positive effects of the department are evident to see, according to the mayor and NIPD police chief.

A town hall meeting was held Monday night at the Sliman Theater for local residents to see the results of the NIPD over the past year.

DeCourt and D’Albor walked the 100 or so present at the Sliman Theater through the progress the NIPD has made in New Iberia during the past year. Monday marked the one year anniversary of the NIPD taking over law enforcement duties for the city of New Iberia.

New Iberia had previously contracted law enforcement services from the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office since 2004, but with DeCourt’s election in 2016, an effort was quickly made to reinstate the NIPD.

“The sheriff called me today and said what a good job we had done and congratulated the chief and all the administration,” DeCourts said. “We had a good conversation and there’s no animosity. People are coming together and everyone’s starting to see that.”

The statistics presented by D’Albor showed major crime reduction within city limits and a near perfect solve rate from officers. The year prior to the NIPD’s reinstatement had 13 homicides, for instance, and this past year only had four.

D’Albor said the NIPD had a 95.7 percent solve rate on major crimes, as well a reduction of major crimes of 73.86 percent. Overall, the NIPD saw a 50 percent rate of reduction of crime.

“The statistic I’m most proud of, when you look at a 95.7 percent solve rate in major crimes, that’s unheard of in communities throughout the nation, much less in a community that’s had issues with crime over the past few years,” D’Albor said. “That’s a community investing in itself and taking pride in itself.”

One of the promises made by DeCourt at the start of bringing the NIPD back was that lowered crime would attract more businesses, and the second half of the town hall was dedicated to showing showing some of the progress made in town in regards to growth and progress.

D’Albor said the department was working on other additions to the NIPD as well, like building an in-house dispatching center.

“We could not do this alone, this is through community policing and the community coming to us and trusting us,” DeCourt said.