Officer fired for use of excessive force

15th June 2015   ·   0 Comments

New Orleans got a reminder last week about how far the New Orleans Police Department is from being compliant with federal standards for constitutional policing.

A veteran NOPD officer has been fired for violating the department’s use of force and truthfulness policies.

WWL News reported that Terrance Saulny was a 25-year veteran of the NOPD. He was last assigned to the NOPD Juvenile Bureau.

NOPD officials said Saulny was involved in an incident with a 16-year-old girl who was being processed in intake. Video shows Saulny using “excessive force” on surveillance video from inside the intake center and used vulgarity, which NOPD officials say he later lied about.

“There is no place in the department for officers who choose to mistreat members of the public and lie about their behavior,” NOPD Superintendent Michael Harrison said. “Based on the results of the PIB investigation, we made the decision to dismiss the officer immediately.”

The independent police monitor supported the decision to fire Saulny.

The termination comes as the NOPD is in the midst of a federally mandated consent decree aimed at completely overhauling the police department and bringing its policies and practices up to federal standards for constitutional policing.

Implementation of the NOPD consent decree began in August 2013 but has been hampered by resistance from rank-and-file officers.

In one such case last year, a female police officer turned off her body camera before shooting a suspect in the head during a scuffle. The incident went unreported to the public for two days and ultimately cost former NOPD Supt. Ronal Serpas his job.

After a scathing Office of Inspector General report alleged that 86 percent of residents’ complaints alleging sexual assault were not followed up on by five detectives in the NOPD’s Special Victims Section between 2011 and 2013, there has been at least one case involving a child that was not followed up on by the NOPD.

NOPD officials confirmed recently that the glaring number of cases that the OIG alleged were not followed up on by detectives were the result of faulty record-keeping, one of the areas cited in the 492-point NOPD consent decree.

A recent story by WWL also showed that the Landrieu administration ignored warnings by former NOPD Supt. Ronal Serpas about the manpower crisis the NOPD is currently facing. Essentially, the NOPD is losing officers faster than it can replace them.

WWL used a public-records request for City of New Orleans emails to show that top-ranking Landrieu administration officials routinely ignored and rejected efforts by Supt. Serpas to secure funding to hire additional police officers.

Community United for Change, a grassroots organization that hosted community forums that brought together Department of Justice officials and New Orleans residents that allowed residents to share stories about family members negatively impacted by unconstitutional policing — meetings that ultimately led to a scathing 2011 DOJ report that said the NOPD was “corrupt and abusive” and the subsequent consent decree — has repeatedly criticized NOPD consent decree federal monitor Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton for not doing more to hold the NOPD accountable when it falls short of the goals and mandates of the 492-point consent decree.

The grassroots organization has asked U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan to either do more to ensure that the Washington, DC-based firm fulfills its duties as federal monitor or find a replacement federal monitor.

CUC also criticized Sheppard Mullin for not giving a voice to the community local grassroots organizations and individuals that laid the groundwork for the NOPD consent decree. The group said grassroots leaders and community activists have been ignored and excluded from the NOPD consent-decree implementation process altogether.

At least one government agency said it believes Officer Terrance Saulny should have been terminated and prosecuted.

“In 2014, Officer Saulny was assigned to secure the Youth Study Center, the city’s juvenile detention facility,” the Office of Independent Police Monitor said in a press release June 11. “Officer Saulny, a 230-pound adult man, pushed the 140-pound girl into the side of the holding cell, where she was detained, and put his forearm in her neck area. Saulny struck the juvenile twice with metal 4-point restraints.”

The OIPM spent over 60 hours reviewing and monitoring this Use of Force case. Specifically, the OIPM looked through extensive video and presented to the Department the contradictions between Officer Saulny’s denials and the reality as shown on the video. After monitoring this investigation, the OIPM has made the following recommendations:

• Require all NOPD officers to be equipped with body worn camera that will be activated in all parts of the Youth Study Center.

• All NOPD officers who are housed in the juvenile unit should be specifically trained in verbal de-escalation, treatment of a juvenile and use of force.

The NOPD has voiced initial support and appreciation for the OIPM’s recommendations. Glen Holt, Superintendent of Youth Study Center, has offered the training. Superintendent Holt also supports body worn cameras for NOPD officers assigned to the Juvenile Booking Department as well as all holding cells that NOPD controls at the Youth Study Center.

With these recommendations, the OIPM hopes to lower the risk level posed to the community, the Department, and the future liability to the city.

“It is important in these times of questioning modern American policing that we be transparent, fair and responsive to the community,” Police Monitor Susan Hutson said Thursday. “We disagree with NOPD’s decision not to present the case to the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office. However, the OIPM agrees with the Department for its decision to terminate the officer today. Terminating this officer lowers the risk level posed to the Department, to the community, and the future liability of the City.”

“This latest firing of a veteran officer can be seen as either a sign of progress or cause for concern, depending on how you look at it,” Ramessu Merriamen Aha, a New Orleans businessman and former congressional candidate, told The Louisiana Weekly. “On one hand, you have to appreciate the fact that the NOPD actually fired an officer for using excessive force, something that doesn’t happen all that often with this troubled police department.

“But on the other hand, you have to wonder how many other veteran NOPD officers are resistant to federally mandated changes and think they have the right to violate residents’ constitutional rights,” Aha continued.

“Hopefully, this will send a clear message toothier veteran officers that no one, not even police officers, are above the law.”

Additional reporting by Louisiana Weekly editor Edmund W. Lewis.

This article originally published in the June 15, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.