New Orleans Police Chief Ronal Serpas delivered a progress report in the fight against crime today.  He says that while cops have not reduced the number of crimes, they say they have slowed down the growth.

"We're beginning to see a trend going in the direction we want it to continue to go," Serpas told the city council. "And we're going to keep pushing and pushing and pushing."

He says for the first three quarters of 2012, "Crime is up about 1.8%."

But compared to last year's increase of nearly 9% over the same time, that's progress.

Serpas also insists that stats show that compared to other similarly sized cities in the US, the crime rate is lower in New Orleans.

"We have a lower violent crime index, we have a lower property crime index, we have a lower robbery rate, a lower aggravated assault rate, a lower burglary rate and a lower theft rate," the chief said.

He noted that is not the case when it comes to auto theft or murder.

"We have a horrendous problem with young men killing each other."

The city's top cop insists that overall most New Orleans residents feel safe.

"Nearly 8 out of 10 responding persons in a very well done survey believe they feel very safe in their neighborhood," Serpas explained. "That means we've got 20 percent left to go."

Serpas also presented stats showing New Orleans has a lower crime rate than many other top tourism and convention cities in America including "Las Vegas, Atlanta, Orlando, Houston, Nashville, Dallas, Seattle, DC and Frisco."