13th September 2015 · 0 Comments
NOPD recruitment efforts continue despite payday loan in lancaster hits to the embattled department’s image
Despite the loss of 73 police officers already this year, a bloody shooting in the French Quarter that drew national media attention. two more former cops being sent to federal prison and disparaging remarks by a former cop, the NOPD continues to move forward with its efforts to boost its ranks.
Its most recent push to end the “blue hemorrhaging” involves NOPD outreach efforts to New Orleans churches and faith-based groups, The Associated Press reported.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and NOPD Supt. Ronal Serpas spoke at a Tuesday press conference about the department’s recently launched “Get Behind The Badge” recruiting campaign.
In addition to a media campaign designed to attract recruits and veteran cops from other major cities, there will be outreach to local churches and community groups.
The city is trying to replenish a police force that has fallen below 1,200 — well below the number of 1,600 that city leaders have said they would like to reach.
Although the New Orleans City Council has approved a police budget that would pay for 150 new officers and relaxed the city’s residency rule to allow for the recruitment of EMS workers, cops and firefighters who live outside of New Orleans, the city has had a hard time finding qualified applicants.
The first 2014 class of NOPD recruits entered the police academy in May and isn’t scheduled to complete its nine-month training until early next year.
Although the class started with 32 recruits, there are now only 27 recruits in the police academy and three additional recruits signed up and cleared for the second group of NOPD recruits.
During the spring, Serpas said he is seeking cash advance Miss. quality NOPD recruits rather than boosting the department’s ranks with mere numbers.
Police union representatives contend that the department continues to struggle to retain and recruit police officers because of the federally mandated NOPD consent decree, which began in August 2013 and aims to overhaul a wide swath of questionable practices and procedures that the Feds say fall under the umbrella of unconstitutional policing.
In a scathing report several years ago, the U.S. De[Department of Justice described the NOPD’s paid off-duty detail system as an “aorta of corruption” and has taken steps to reform the system as part of its 492-point plan for overhauling the department.
More bad news for the NOPD came Thursday with the announcement that two former narcotics detectives were sentenced by a federal judge to 18 months behind bars after pleading guilty to working side jobs during their NOPD work shifts and taking cash that was intended for drug informants.
U.S. District Judge Nannette Brown sentenced Rafael Dobard, 39, and Quincy Jones, 33, to 18 months after they pleaded guilty in February and ordered them to repay $18,484 and $19,064 respectively to the City of New Orleans.
Jones and Dobard admitted that they took funds set aside to pay drug informants and kept it for themselves and other officers in their unit. The two former detectives also owned up to turning in false time sheets that claimed they were working for the NOPD when they were providing security at New Orleans housing developments.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to ensuring that no
one is above the law,” U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite said Thursday. “These officers, both of whom swore to uphold and enforce no employment bad credit personal loan our laws, instead broke the law by stealing public funds.”
“This is what the community has been complaining about,” the Rev. Raymond Brown, a community activist and president of National Action Now, told The Louisiana Weekly. “While the NOPD and Landrieu administration insist that the department is changing, we see proof every day that the department still has a problem with finding officers who respect the law and uphold the U.S. Constitution.
“We need to watch this police department and administration very closely to make sure that the changes mandated by the Depart-ment of Justice are implemented effectively and that no one turns a blind eye to this kind of criminal and unconstitutional policing.”
During the spring, NOPD consent-decree monitor Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton issued a report that said the NOPD still has “a long way to go” before it is compliant with federal standards of constitutional policing.
A seven-year NOPD veteran who recently quit and is among the 73 officers who left in 2014 told WWLTV last week that he quit because of harsh working conditions and a work environment that made it very difficult for him and other cops to do their job. As an example, he pointed to several instances where he was in the process of carrying out a warrant when he was pulled from that assignment and reassigned to patrol the French Quarter.
The former cop, a third-generation officer, said that when he submitted his resignation, no one from the department tried to discourage him from departing or even bothered to ask why he was leaving.
The NOPD’s recruitment efforts will certainly not be helped by a recent story in Nola.com/The Times-Picayune in which a doctor told payday loans in cuyahoga falls the newspaper that volunteers’ efforts to save Brittany Thomas’ life after the June 30 early-morning shooting were hindered by NOPD officers’ “failure to keep bystanders and curious onlookers out of the way and the lack of response when an officer was repeatedly asked to provide emergency equipment.”
Dr. Nicole Sinclair, a pediatric intensive care physician from Michigan, told Nola.com she didn’t know why NOPD Supt. Ronal Serpas would shower the NOPD officers with praise on the same day that the shooting took place.
Three days after the shootings, Serpas again praised the officers on the scene of the incident.
“When an event like this happens, what we expect the police officers to do is exactly what they did,” Serpas said. “I’ve not seen anything that wouldn’t give me anything but great pride in their ability to handle a very confusing situation.”
“The most qualified people were providing the medical care,” Dr. Sinclair told Nola.com, referring to a military medic, nurse and three doctors who sprang into action to assist Brittany Thomas. “But (an officer captured on video standing nearby) was the most qualified in crowd control — and there was literally none.
“Drunk bystanders were trying to get in our way,” Sinclair continued. “ There were times we had to push them away ourselves which kind of takes away from where our attention needs to be.”
Sinclair said that after Brittany Thomas stopped breathing and had no pulse, she and the other healthcare professionals assisting her took turns administering CPR while asking the NOPD officer to bring them an automated external defibrillator (AED). She said the officer did nothing.
“I was there when (the Oschner nurse) asked him a couple times to (to locate a defibrillator), and there was no response,” Sinclair recalled. “It was almost like he was not involved.”
“I asked the officer twice for an AED,” the Oschner nurse told Nola.com in an earlier interview. The officer never checked the victim. He was just standing there as if the victim was dead.”
Serpas and City Hall spokesman did not resound to requests from Nola.com for comment but said in earlier interviews that the officer had acted properly.
Brittany Thomas, a 21-year-old nursing student, was one of 10 people injured during the gun battle on Bourbon Street and died July 2 from a single gunshot to the head.
Although NOPD officials and the City of New Orleans did not initially release information about the 10 victims, they later said that five of the victims shot were women and six of the victims were tourists.
“From that, you can see why some people might think that the City of New Orleans and the New Orleans Police Department are more interested in not allowing this kind of violence to negatively affect the tourism industry than they are in keeping people safe and securing justice for the victims of this tragic incident,” Ramessu Merriamen Aha, a New Orleans businessman and former congressional candidate, told The Louisiana Weekly. “We don’t need a police department or city leaders who play games or stage media stunts to shape public perception of the NOPD — we need leadership and a police department that respects people’s constitutional rights and is committed to making New Orleans safe for everyone who lives here.”
This article originally published in the July 21, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
