Revealing Slain Victims' Rap Sheets Draws Fire As Mike Ainsworth walked his two sons to a school bus stop, he heard a woman being carjacked scream, and ran to help. The woman was not hurt, police said, but the Good Samaritan was shot to death by a suspect who fled. When police gave out the details of Ainsworth's killing, they also announced he had been arrested for drugs and other non-violent crimes, keeping with a year-old policy in which criminal records for slain victims are released - sometimes before they've been publicly identified. New Orleans police say revealing a victim's rap sheet lets the public know that much of the violence is happening between people with similar criminal backgrounds. Families of the slain victim's say the practice is insensitive, and others outraged with the policy say it has racial overtones and sends a message that the victims got what was coming to them. "I don't understand why they want to do it," said Kathryn White, whose 25-year-old son was gunned down in what she said was a case of mistaken identity. White said her son was arrested just once for a small amount of marijuana. You are already in so much pain and then you have to see people saying bad things about your dead child. What good does that do anyone," she said. In a city often cited as the nation's murder capital - more than 20 people have been slain so far in January - police are hard-pressed to find solutions. Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas said publicizing arrest records gives a better picture of the killing, which authorities said usually involves young men who are killing people with similar backgrounds. Serpas estimated 62 percent of those killed in 2011 had prior felony arrests. He said 40 percent of people arrested for murder in 2011 - and 39 percent of those killed - had previous arrests for illegal possession of a firearm If I walked into the doctor's office and he told me there was a 40 percent certainty that something I was doing would affect my life, don't you think I would want that knowledge? Serpas said. This is knowledge people need to know, and talk about. The stakes are high for New Orleans, a city where tourism and free-wheeling visits are promoted for events like the Sugar Bowl, the Final Four basketball tournament this spring and the 2013 Super Bowl, not to mention Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Serpas acknowledge New Orleans' per capita murder rate is 10 times the national average. In 2011, there were 199 murders in a city of 344,000, up from 175 in 2010. However, those numbers are far less than the 400-plus killings during some years in the 1990s when the pre-Hurricane Katrina population was higher. Landrieu hopes to fight the crime surge with an emphasis on mental health, education and employment, as well as more patrols and targeting hotspots. Many big-city police departments avoid a blanket policy of releasing criminal information on victims. In Baltimore, police track whether homicide victims had criminal histories, but people who inquire are referred to online court records. In 2011, 80 percent of murder victims had criminal records, according to Baltimore police. "We may confirm whether the person was known to the police if we're asked, but we try not to disclose too much information about victims for their privacy and security," said department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi.