Federal judge takes NOPD to task

29th September 2014   ·   0 Comments

NOPD asks for more money for additional cameras

A federal judge said Wednesday that the penalties for NOPD officers not turning on their body and/or dashboard cameras needs to be serious enough to force compliance, FOX 8 News reported.

“The police officer doesn’t know when he gets out of the car whether it’s going to be routine or not. We want them to use it every time,” U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan said. “There has to be discipline. It needs to be serious enough that it more than encourages — it forces people to comply with the policy.”

NOPD consent -decree federal monitor Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton reiterated the findings of its third quarter report in court last week which said the cameras aren’t being used enough.

To make matters worse, the federal monitor reported that two-thirds of the cameras installed in April are malfunctioning.

Interim NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison told Judge Morgan during Wednesday’s consent-decree hearing that he’s asking officers to turn on the cameras before they exit their patrol cars.

Harrison said when officers are involved in a life or death situation there may be times when the cameras aren’t on during use-of-force incidents.

An audit found that in September, cameras were used 62 percent of the time during the incidents they are required to be used. In August, it was only 49 percent.

A U.S. Department of Justice representative said the cameras are not a cure all, but a part of comprehensive reforms.

On Tuesday Sheppard Mullin representatives were lambasted by residents, civil rights groups and grassroots organizations for ignoring the needs and concerns of local residents and preventing public input on efforts to bring constitutional policing to New Orleans.

Sheppard Mullin was bombarded with questions that underscored the disconnect and neglect residents perceived in the federal monitor’s handling of the NOPD consent decree. At one point, Managing Partner Jonathan Aronie was asked about Sheppard Mullin officials riding around in limousines that brought them from the airport to various meetings and court appearances. Initially, Aronie categorically denied those accusations but later said he personally paid for a limousine to shuttle his colleagues from the Louis Armstrong International Airport in Kenner to New Orleans.

A number of participants at the Xavier University meeting said they were offended by the lavish spending of Sheppard Mullin officials in a city as poor as New Orleans and said monitoring team members have been arrogant, dismissive and disrespectful in their dealings with the Black community.

Last week, Community United for Change issued its assessment of federal monitor Sheppard Mullin’s third quarter report on the implementation of the NOPD consent decree. Among other things, CUC concluded that Sheppard Mullin has “serious flaws and reporting standards” which the grassroots organization attributes in part to the Washington, DC-based firm’s failure to be present and vigilant in carrying out its monitoring duties.

“Throughout this report there is a sense that the monitor is dumbfounded at the lack of procedures not being followed,” CUC wrote. “SM appears to believe the monitor’s job is only one of being a reporting agent. But equally important in the field of monitoring is the process of reminding, cautioning, admonishing and counseling.”

CUC makes reference to the NOPD’s failure to properly utilize body cameras as well as ongoing problems with the department’s failure to properly report officer-involved shootings. Despite these failures to comply with the consent decree, CUC says the federal monitor has failed to hold the NOPD accountable for these shortcomings.

“Those are violations found during the DOJ investigation,” CUC wrote. “For four consistent years, while under the watchful eye of the DOJ and now the federal monitor, the NOPD continues to conduct their unconstitutional-policing business as usual. But the monitor is hopeful. This Peter Pan ideology is not what the people of New Orleans are paying for.”

CUC added that residents need a federal monitor that will “implement the consent decree with force and vigor.”

CUC said that Sheppard Mullin must shoulder the blame for the lack of programs demonstrated more than a year after implementation of the NOPD consent decree began.

“The problems are visible and the solutions are viable — sanctions always speak louder than words,” CUC wrote. “What is needed is for the monitor to release the tools the court has empowered the monitor with. Recommendations are the eyes and ears of the court. Without direction from the monitor, the court has no recourse but to think the process is working and the subterfuge continues.”

In a letter to Judge Susie Morgan dated September 22, CUC asked the Court to ensure that the NOPD and the City of New Orleans adhere to the federally mandated NOPD consent decree and that the federal monitor does its job.

“We conclude by asking the Court how long it will allow the Cit and the NOPD to ignore the orders of the Court and the Consent Decree,” CUC wrote. “We ask that the Court demonstrate to the City and the NOPD that there are consequences for refusing to follow the Consent Decree. We also ask that the Court light a fire under the Monitor to compel it to take a more active role in listening to the public and and creatively and actively addressing these failures. The people of New Orleans deserve a constitutional-policing authority.”

Less than two weeks after the federal monitor report said that two-thirds of the NOPD’s body cameras are malfunctioning and less than a month after the fallout from an officer-involved shooting during which an officer turned off a body camera before a suspect was shot in the head, the NOPD asked the New Orleans City Council for $4 million to pay for additional body and dashboard cameras.

NOPD officials said the $4 million would also be used to pay for 150 new desktop computers, 50 mobile data terminals for patrol cars, 100 new vehicles and server upgrades.

Critics have said that acquiring additional body and dashboard cameras will be of little use to the average New Orleans resident since the NOPD is reportedly in­vestigating nearly a dozen cases in which law enforcement officers have not utilized body cameras during their interactions with civilians.

The most glaring example of these departmental violations involves the case of Officer Lisa Lewis, who shot suspect Armand Bennett in the head last month during an alleged skirmish. The officer told the NOPD that the camera had been turned off because she and her partner were about to end their work shift. The shooting was not reported for two days, another departmental violation that some believe cost former NOPD Supt. Ronal Serpas his job.

The full council will vote on the appropriations on Thursday, Octo­ber 2.

With 27 new police officers set to graduate from the police academy in November, 29 new NOPD recruits in class No. 171 began 25 weeks of training the first week of September, The New Orleans Advocate reported.

The New Orleans City Council approved a $128.6 million budget for the NOPD for 2014 that included money for five recruit classes totaling 150 officers.

Targeting churches and local universities, the NOPD has stepped up recruiting efforts to bring the undermanned department from its current workforce of approximately 1,100 officers to its target goal of 1,600.

During the summer the Office of Inspector General and the Metropolitan Crime Commission said that the NOPD’s efforts to get a handle on rising violent crime were exacerbated by the department’s mismanagement of its current personnel. Both the OIG and the MCC suggested hiring civilians to perform office tasks in order to free up officers to patrol the streets of New Orleans.

With the department on pace to lose an estimated 150 officers to retirement, transfers or termination, the NOPD has been losing officers faster than it can replace them, a trend often referred to as “blue hemorrhaging.”

Several police union representatives have identified low morale among current officers as a major issue, with many expressing dissatisfaction with changes that have been made to the NOPD’s off-duty detail policy.

Those changes, however, are part of a federally mandated NOPD consent decree, being implemented by the U.S. Department of Justice, which called the NOPD detail system an “aorta of corruption.”

Some have also blamed low officer morale on the department’s top brass but last month marked a mayor turning point for the NOPD and former Supt. Ronal Serpas, who New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said was doing a great job during the recent mayoral campaign.

Serpas unexpectedly announced his retirement shortly after an incident last month during which the NOPD failed to report an officer-involved shooting or the fact that the suspect was shot in the head for two days. He blamed the blunder on a mistake by a public information officer.

The interim superintendent position was filled by Michael Harrison, a—year NOPD veteran.

NOPD spokesman Tyler Gamble recently told The New Orleans Advocate that NOPD class No. 171 has been bolstered by the return of several cops who left the force on good terms and opted to return.

“These recruits are joining the NOPD at a critical time in our city’s history as we work to rebuild the ranks of this department,” interim NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison said. “Now more than ever, public safety is our top priority.”

While recruiting new applicants has been a major challenge, Mayor Mitch Landrieu has stepped up recruiting efforts in other major cities, including Houston, Chicago and Miami, and targeting military veterans.

“We are committed to building a robust Police Department and recruiting the best and brightest to protect our city,” Landrieu said.

Additional reporting by Louisiana Weekly editor Edmund W. Lewis.

This article originally published in the September 29, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.