It has been 53 days since gunfire rang out in downtown Mobile during the city’s New Year’s Eve festival and stoked worries among city officials over whether a copycat incident could erupt during the city’s Mardi Gras season.

Not only did a major incident not occur, but there were fewer reports of crime and 186 less complaints made to police compared to the 2022 season. There 227 complaints this year compared to 413 last year.

“I was concerned going into Mardi Gras after the occurrence of what happened on New Year’s Eve,” Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said during Wednesday’s council meeting. “But I think back to that point in time when everyone felt it was important to have a safe Mardi Gras. Everyone within public safety, especially the police, came up with an excellent plan.”

‘Assertive’

Indeed, by all accounts, Mobile pulled off a successful 19-day Carnival celebration with few incidences of crime, no reports of gunfire, while hosting around 1.1 million visitors.

Only 20 reports of misdemeanor arrests occurred this season, compared to 27 last year when the crowds were a little less. There were no felony arrests this year.

The fewer arrests and criminal complaints occurred while Mobile welcomed around 133,000 more revelers than last year.

“The best part of it is there were no major incidences,” Mobile City Councilman William Carroll, who represents the downtown area that hosts the city’s Mardi Gras activities, said. “That’s a lot to say about our city.”

Mobile officials are crediting the safe season to ramped up police presence downtown during the Carnival season, as well as extra floodlights that were brought in to shine darkened areas along the parade routes.

“We were more assertive in our efforts,” said Mobile Police Chief Paul Prine.

Lawrence Battiste, the city’s executive director of public safety, said he believes the additional police presence along with positive interactions law enforcement had with revelers “had a big impact” toward keeping crime down.

“For the most part, people coming down were having a good time and anything we can do to assist in that makes it a much better situation,” he said.

New Year’s effect

Prine said he believes that “overreporting” of the New Year’s Eve incident, along with public service announcements authorities did before the Carnival season started, helped in generating attention toward maintaining safety downtown during Mardi Gras.

“Because there was overreporting, it forced us to get out in front and talk about the issue,” said Prine.

He said he typically shies away from excessive talk over an isolated incident like the New Year’s Eve shooting that occurred in the 200 block of Dauphin Street and left one person dead and nine others injured. The shooter in that incident has since been arrested.

“We issued PSAs and went out on broadcast media and said that we will be in full force, looking for weapons,” Prine said. “My belief is the messaging resonated with those who came down with nefarious intent.”

He added, “I believe that a large portion of that success goes to the community. We got out there and said, ‘if you see something, tell an officer and rally support and get resources to an area.’”

Prine said only four weapons were confiscated during the season.

“That’s not much at all,” he said. “We had a phenomenal season.”

‘Luck’

Of course, a “little luck” might have also played a role, authorities said.

It’s a bit of luck that did not happen along a parade route in Uptown New Orleans on Sunday. Five people were shot, and a teenager was killed during an incident that erupted along the Krewe of Bacchus parade route. The gunman has since been arrested, charged with murder, and is being held on $1 million bond.

New Orleans police, like Mobile police in reaction to the New Year’s Eve shooting, called it an “isolated” event.

“There is always a little luck that goes into anything,” Battiste said. “Early on in my career, I’d say things like ‘in a perfect world, we’d have no crime.’ But (I would also say) in an imperfect world, I could put a police officer in your back pocket and still could not prevent a crime from occurring. (Crime) is an emotional act. When emotion overcomes you and you react to the situation, there is very little reactionary time I have as an individual from committing that act.”

Prine said that prayer also helps.

“Luck plays a large portion of it, but so does prayer,” said Prine. “There are a lot of people who don’t want (criminal activity) in their neighborhood. We were very fortunate this year. It’s a win not only for the police department but for Mobilians.”

Matthew Valasik, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of Alabama, said the best thing police could have done is “take all of the precautions” necessary after the New Year’s Eve shooting to prevent another violent situation.

“If there is a greater police presence that is out, it will deter the negative behavior from people,” Valasik said. “They will see a police officer standing nearby and likely having something happens becomes much lower.

He added, “Police are a reactive force. They wait for us to call them on something. But having that good relationship with the community and working together will help benefit in keeping things calm and safe for everyone.”

Valasik said in the case of the New Orleans shooting, there was little police could do to stop it from happening.

“It was more of an interpersonal conflict between individuals and the person ran into someone they did not like, or an argument escalated into violence,” he said. “When you have things like that, it’s difficult to prepare for it.”

A similar situation occurred on New Year’s Eve in Mobile between the shooter and another gunman. The shots rang out not far from where police were stationed less than one hour before midnight.

But the violence on New Year’s Eve seems to be at a distance to Prine and Battiste following a celebratory Mardi Gras that draws the largest crowds annually to downtown Mobile.

“This community, understanding what happened on New Year’s Eve, did not want to be represented in that negative light as well,” Battiste said. “They came out and for the most part, were on their best behavior.”