Federal monitor says NOPD hiring bad recruits
23rd January 2017 · 0 Comments
Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, the Washington, DC-based law firm tapped to oversee the implementation of the NOPD’s federally mandated, 492-point consent decree aimed at overhauling the troubled police department, said in a report issued Thursday that the NOPD is hiring faulty recruits. The report comes more than three years into the implementation of the consent decree, which began in August 2013 and was released a day after NOPD Deputy Chief of Staff and former Landrieu administration staffer Jonathan Wisbey resigned from his post.
In the report, Sheppard Mullin accuses the NOPD of overlooking “documented risk indicators” in the records of 59 recruits accepted into the training academy despite reports of domestic abuse, possible drug-related issues, problems with lie-detector tests and prior NOPD arrests on an array of charges.
“NOPD may be accepting candidates into the academy who should not be NOPD officers,” the federal monitors wrote in last week’s report.
Of the 137 recruit files reviewed by Sheppard Mullin, the federal monitors found “risk indictors” among 59 applicants, which represents more than one-third of the files reviewed. According to the report, one or more of the applicants with previous NOPD arrests were booked on charges that included intoxication and an auto break-in.
Other risk indicators that raised flags with the federal monitors included “self-reported repetitive drug use,” “deceptive mental illness to gain separation from an armed service,” a suspended driver’s license, an unstable work history and at least one professional reference that said “Do not hire.”
Sheppard Mullin described the NOPD’s background check process as “significantly flawed” and said that when the department did uncover behavioral risk indicators those discrepancies were “downplayed or overlooked.”
The report also said that the applicants were not evaluated “holistically” and that certain aspects of the psychological exam findings were discarded by those charged with hiring NOPD recruits.
Sheppard Mullin said that it was “more troubling” that the NOPD failed to properly document the questionable recruit risk indicators.
“Some files were marked as having no negative information even though the potential recruit clearly had multiple risk indicators,” the federal monitors wrote.
“We’re not hiring saints or angels,” NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison told reporters Thursday. “We’re hiring human beings.”
Harrison pointed out that the NOPD had already terminated two of the 59 applicants flagged by the federal monitors as questionable recruits and that the department only hired 2.6 percent of the more than 4,400 applicants seeking to join the force. “Don’t forget — we disqualify 97.4 percent,” Harrison said.
The police chief added that the department reviewed the performance of those recruits who had been flagged “to make sure that no person who was hired should not have been hired and that everybody that is here should be here.”
The federal monitors also reported “real or perceived pressure” on background investigators to “cut corners, overlook risk indicators and/or hurry investigations” and said that some background checks were conducted “without adequate due diligence.”
The report comes amid growing public pressure on the NOPD and Landrieu administration to address a rise in homicides last year and a spike in violent crime. WWL News reported last week that there were 47 gun shootings reported over the first 17 days of 2017.
The Landrieu administration has said repeatedly that the city needs 1,600 officers to keep residents and visitors safe but the city currently has less than 1,200 officers. The NOPD has lost more than 400 officers since New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu took office in 2010.
“Everywhere I go, (residents) ask the same question: Where are the police and why aren’t we hiring more?” Harrison said Thursday.
This article originally published in the January 23, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
