The case for ending the Consent Decree
16th August 2021 · 0 Comments
In November 2020, Mayor LaToya Cantrell asked the U.S. Department of Justice to end the eight-year-old NOPD Consent Decree settlement the City entered with the United States in 2012 to address the DOJ’s 2011 investigative findings that the NOPD committed Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment violations.
The DOJ found a pattern or practice of excessive force, including deadly force, force against restrained victims, and force as retaliation. The United States also found rampant unlawful searches, seizures, and arrests. The investigation showed that NOPD officers discriminate against city residents in ways such as failing to adequately investigate sexual assault and domestic violence cases because of the victims’ gender and failing to serve those with limited English proficiency.
In the letter to the DOJ, the City’s attorney notified the DOJ that the City and NOPD are in full and effective compliance with the Consent Decree and invited the DOJ to join the City in ending the Consent Decree.
However, federal monitors disagreed with the City in a report to the court in February 2021. They suggested the City and NOPD hadn’t reached full compliance in evaluations and promotions, recruitment, community engagement, and stops, searches and arrests.
The City countered the monitors’ finding confirming that federal monitors found significant progress and “there are no findings of unconstitutional policing by the NOPD for over two years.”
There are legitimate pros and cons for ending the Consent Decree or keeping it in place.
There’s no doubt that the crime wave in New Orleans is making us feel unsafe. And if we’re keeping it real, effectively policing a city of 383,997 people with a police force of 1,140 is nearly impossible. So, it’s not a stretch to see why New Orleans holds the unenviable position of having the highest increase in homicides per capita in the nation.
Data reported by WalletHub, a personal finance website, offers proof that the City’s police department is not preventing or stopping violent crimes. Between the second quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2021, New Orleans scored 95.1 out of a possible 100 points for the highest homicide rates in the nation.
Adding more cause for concern, NOPD Police Chief Shaun Ferguson last month reported 250 shootings, 108 homicides, 120 carjackings, and 192 armed robberies occurred across the city during the first seven months of 2021.
New Orleanians are feeling the pain. The N.O. Crime Coalition Survey results show 74% percent of city residents think crime in New Orleans has worsened over the past year, and 64% don’t feel safe. Only 35 percent believe that the City is safe.
Staffing problems, notwithstanding, we have to ask, shouldn’t the City reimagine the NOPD and how it can best serve the community? Shouldn’t the NOPD spend its time and efforts on a policing plan that is proactive rather than reactive?
Raise your hand if you see police cars patrolling in your neighborhood, excluding the French Quarter. When do you see them? Let us guess when the crime tape is up, and the crime lab shows up to document the latest taking of life.
No, the police can’t be everywhere at once, but what is the department doing to prevent crime, to investigate offenders in our midst? We know of one neighborhood where a car theft ring has operated for 25 years. Why doesn’t the police department know those perpetrators by now? Indeed, technology and investigations of the city’s crime tracking data should give the police a clue. And if your car is stolen, good luck with the police finding it, if they even try.
Looking back, it’s understandable why former Mayor Mitch Landrieu asked the DOJ to investigate the NOPD. Former Mayor Marc Morial asked for help reforming the department also. The NOPD racked up many egregious violations that included vigilantism and murders of citizens that go back decades.
The “Algiers 7” case, where a mob of cops descended on Algiers residents to exact retribution for a dead white officer discovered in a West Bank ditch, shocked and angered the Black community. Four Blacks were killed, including a pregnant woman, and at least 50 citizens were injured. The 2005 Danzinger Bridge murders of innocent Hurricane Katrina evacuees. The Henry Glover, Justin Sipp, Wendell Allen murders by killer cops in 2012 spring to mind. And in summer 2020, NOPD used tear gas on Black Lives Matter protesters.
There was good reason to put the NOPD under a Consent Decree settlement.
But that was then. Things are different now. There’s no doubt that more needs to be done to reform the remnants of a rogue police force. However, significant progress occurred since the Consent Decree began, according to the feds.
Superintendent Ferguson must be given credit for the NOPD’s homicide solve rate of 58 percent.
In July, Mayor Cantrell said that the City had spent at least $55 million on the monitors and changes to the NOPD. “Just get the bear out of our pocket and we’ll handle the rest,” she said.
While corrections are still needed, wouldn’t it be better to use the $115,000 a month to pay a law firm with expertise in Consent Decree monitoring, pay recruits and officers competitive salaries, and invest more in the Public Integrity Bureau, which monitors have praised? Also, why can’t the Independent Police Monitor do oversight instead of the feds?
Could some of that money be used to reinstate the residency rule and invest in homes for officers? Could the city purchase abandoned houses, renovate them, and gift them to police officers? That’s a perk and an offer that many won’t refuse. Plus, they’ll live in the City they are sworn to serve and protect.
Better pay, housing assistance, and other benefits can solve the recruitment problem.
Suppose Mayor Cantrell and Superintendent Ferguson can reimagine the NOPD with a plan that protects and serves New Orleanians and law enforcement officers. In that case, The Louisiana Weekly will support ending the Consent Decree.
This article originally published in the August 16, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
