New NOPD recruit class uses state-of-the-art facility at UNO

On Tuesday, NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison, Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation (NOPJF) and the University of New Orleans (UNO) announced the start of the newest police recruit class and unveiled a new state-of-the-art facility at UNO where the 33 recruits will begin their training. As part of a new public-private partnership, Class #173, future recruit classes and current officers will begin training at the UNO Research & Technology Park. The move provides the department with a modern and high-quality training facility while the current Training Academy undergoes remodeling over the next two years.

“We made a commitment to rebuild and redesign the way we recruit, hire and train our officers, and this new partnership is an incredible step forward toward that goal,” NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison said. “The facility at UNO instantly provides more room to train, larger classroom space, and technology upgrades that will give our instructors and recruits the resources they need to be successful. This new partnership is just one more example of how the public, private and non-profit sectors are working together to grow and rebuild this department.”

“One of the best ways to help change the culture of violence in New Orleans is by becoming a NOPD officer,” said Mayor Landrieu. “With the loss of Officer Daryle Holloway this weekend, we are more aware than ever of the sacrifice our officers make every day to keep our community safe. I am grateful to the men and women of recruit class #173 who are answering the call of duty and stepping up to join the ranks of our city’s dedicated heroes in blue. These recruits will join the ranks of officers who are being held to higher standards— better trained, better equipped and housed in state-of-the-art facilities. Public safety remains our top priority, and we will continue to aggressively recruit and retain officers as we build a safer, more prosperous New Orleans.”

Under the two-year agreement, the City will lease the UNO Lindy C. Boggs International Conference Center at an annual cost of $160,000. The facility includes two large classrooms, an amphitheater with the ability to seat 100 and an auditorium with the ability to seat 300. With a total of 16,000 square feet of work space, it will be a significant expansion from the current NOPD Training Academy located on Paris Avenue. The facility will house all recruit training and in-service training for current NOPD officers with the exception of driving and shooting range training.

“The University of New Orleans is pleased to welcome the police academy to the Lindy Boggs International Conference Center on our campus,” UNO President Dr. Peter J. Fos said. “The University is committed to its role as a community asset, and we are happy to help accommodate the needs of the New Orleans Police Department so it can continue the essential work of training its future officers.”

The NOPJF played a major role in securing the new facility.

“It is critically important for our new police recruits to have the highest quality learning environment possible,” said New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation Board Chairman Bob Brown. “The move into the UNO Research & Technology Park will be a terrific enhancement to their training experience.”

“This is a unique moment in time in which the University’s need for funding is coupled with the New Orleans Police Department’s urgent need for housing its police academy,” said Richard Haase, Board Member of UNO’s Research and Technology Foundation and the New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation. “This partnership between the NOPD and UNO is an outstanding example of public-private partnerships in action.”

The City anticipates breaking ground on an estimated $2.4 million project to renovate the NOPD Third District station located on Paris Avenue later this year. As part of the renovation, the Third District will move its operations to the current NOPD Training Academy next door. The current Third District building will become the new NOPD Training Academy once renovations are complete. Those renovations are expected to be completed by 2017.

New recruits will undergo extensive training curriculum

Class #173 will undergo 26 weeks of training, including 886.5 hours of Police Officer Standards and Training (POST) certified training. Over the next few months, the recruits will receive training based on a strong, constitutional policing-focused curriculum. They will learn a variety of skills including, various aspects of constitutional, state and municipal law, how to take reports from victims, defensive driving and community policing. Recruits will also spend a significant amount of time in the classroom learning best legal practices and participating in various scenarios so that they can effectively work on crime scenes and help to build strong cases for eventual prosecution. The new recruits join 29 recruits in Class #172 who are already in training and scheduled to graduate in the coming weeks.

NOPD Recruit Class #173 is the second class to begin training in 2015. The 2015 budget includes funding for 150 new police recruits. Starting salary for a new police recruit is $38,434. With a five percent across the board pay raise now in place, and another ten percent pay raise on the way, the NOPD is on track to become the highest paying law enforcement agency in the region by 2016.

This year, the NOPD partnered with the FBI to certify all full-time and adjunct instructors. Today, all full-time and part-time instructors are certified through the FBI Law Enforcement Instructor School (LEIS). LEIS is an intense 40-hour practical, skill-oriented course designed to provide fundamentals in adult instruction and curriculum design. Participants learn and practice a variety of teaching strategies to deliver effective instruction. Participants also incorporate different instructional methodologies for effective delivery to a variety of audiences in different learning environments and engage in public speaking exercises to hone their presentation skills. The LEIS has been aligned to meet POST Commission instructor certification requirements in many states throughout the United States. The training is being provided to the NOPD free of charge in conjunction with an on-going partnership with the FBI.

This article originally published in the June 29, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.