P.A.A.R.I. Partner Covington Police Department Reports Reduction in Overall Crime Rate

GLOUCESTER — John Rosenthal, Chairman of the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative (P.A.A.R.I.), and Executive Director Allie Hunter McDade are pleased to announce that the Covington Police Department, a P.A.A.R.I. partner, has seen a reduction in the city’s overall crime rate from 2015 to 2016.

Police Chief Tim Lentz released the 2016 crime statistics for the City of Covington, which illustrate a 14 percent reduction in the overall crime rate based on FBI Part I reported offenses.

In 2015, the Covington Police Department responded to 510 crimes meeting the criteria for FBI Part I Uniform Crime Reports. In 2016, that number fell to 440.

To address the nation’s current opioid epidemic, the Covington Police Department led an effort to start the Operation Angel program in St. Tammany Parish — the first of its kind in Louisiana. Through this program, anyone seeking help for drug addiction can walk into any police station in St. Tammany Parish and be admitted into a treatment program. Participants can then turn over any unused narcotics, without fear of arrest, and be transported to a treatment facility by an officer.

Police officers in Covington are also equipped with nasal Narcan and have been successful in deploying the opioid reversal drug multiple times to patients who were overdosing in the past year.

In March of 2016, a fatal drug overdose led to the first homicide since 2007 in Covington. As part of that incident, investigators were able to identify and arrest the man suspected of selling the fatal drugs to the victim.

Mayor Cooper and Chief Tim Lentz made the following joint statement: “We can proudly say a 14 percent reduction in crime illustrates that the hard work and dedication to community-based policing by our officers has proven to be a success.”