Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot may be dancing in the streets as crime in her city is out of control but New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell met with government officials and pleaded with them for assistance. The latest surging crime statistic is auto theft.

Mayor Cantrell met with an aide to President Biden last week and asked for help with the city’s crime problem. She asked for the U.S. Marshals to deploy personnel to execute arrest warrants. She also asked that ATF help with gun violence in the city.

Cantrell was in Washington, D.C. for Washington Mardi Gras, an annual event for partying, lobbying, and fundraising. She met with Julie Chavez Rodriguez, director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. Cantrell held a press conference in New Orleans to talk about her intention to ask for help in Washington before she left for D.C.

In November, federal marshals helped NOLA police with a two-week sweep for people wanted on arrest warrants. Cantrell said the operation “rendered real results.” She would like the marshals to do it again with a longer trip.

“I’m asking for some additional help. A month would be huge. These warrants are all fact-checked, real time data from all of our NOPD districts, so we know we are going after individuals not only right now, but we need to have off the street,” Cantrell said.

Meanwhile, the mayor also wants the ATF to help recover weapons that could be used in crimes, she said. “Just help again get guns off the streets of the city of New Orleans. We have to get the guns off,” Cantrell said.

The mayor also asked for help with mental health issues. She requested that the White House send the surgeon general to New Orleans to talk about mental health issues.

Cantrell is a little late on this. She’s been criticized for how the crime rate has soared during her time in office, including violent crime. She has been speaking publicly about getting crime under control. Earlier this month, she created an interagency task force to bring all parts of the city government together to work on the issue. She faces a recall effort and that likely has a role in her new focus on curbing gun violence and crime in the city.

Auto thefts in New Orleans are surging, part of a nationwide trend. Viral videos show how to steal two makes of automobiles, in particular, the most popular with auto thieves – Kias and Hyundais. One tow lot in New Orleans East reports that last August, 50% to 60% of tows were stolen vehicles. Now the percentage is up to 85% to 90%. For at least six years, auto thefts have been on the rise. In 2016, there were 3,150 vehicles were stolen. In 2021, that number went to 4,400. In 2022, that number increased by about 10%.

In July, viral videos showed how easy it is to steal Kias and Hyundais.

In July, videos went viral on social media showing that it was relatively simple to steal any Kia or Hyundai manufactured between 2010 and 2021 that used a physical key, rather than a key fob. While most modern vehicles have an immobilizer that will keep the car from starting without a proper key, those brands did not make that technology standard until last year. That meant that thieves could use a USB cable, or even just a screwdriver, to start the cars and take off.

Kias and Hyundais accounted for 1,189 of the vehicles stolen in New Orleans last year, nearly a quarter of the total. That’s nearly six times the number of those brands that are typically stolen. And almost all of them were taken in the last six months of the year after the videos began circulating.

Yikes!

The social media trend has been named the Kia Challenge. In New Orleans, Hyundais are more likely to be stolen. There were 439 more vehicle thefts in 2022 than in 2021 in New Orleans. The number of additional Kia and Hyundai thefts recorded by NOPD was so high that if those cars were stolen at the same rate that they had been taken in prior years, the number of thefts in 2022 would have fallen by more than 270. It’s crazy. Some New Orleans residents have told reporters that their car was stolen more than once in the last year.

A recall petition was filed against Mayor Cantrell in August. Cantrell has faced a lot of bad publicity for her decisions made in office, including her travel arrangements for city business and her involvement with a non-profit she founded.

Organizers of the recall say they are making a final push in the five weeks left to get the number of signatures needed. So far, they have fallen far short. Corruption and incompetence in the New Orleans city government are nothing new. We’ll see if anything happens this time or if the residents are willing to continue living with the status quo.