New Orleans on pace to have fewest murders since 1971

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - With just over two weeks left in 2018, New Orleans is on pace to see a significant drop in the number of murders for the year, and could mark the lowest number of killings the city has seen in nearly half a century.

NOLA.com/The Times-Picayune reports as of Saturday, New Orleans police had investigated 137 murders this year. There were 151 murders in 2017 by the same date, and 169 in 2016 by Dec. 15.

If the current pace of murders continues in the final two weeks of the year, the city will end 2018 with 143 murders - a 47-year low. According to data from the City of New Orleans, the last time there were fewer than 150 murders was in 1971, when New Orleans had 116 murder victims.