New Orleans council member pushes city to enter agreement on homeless sweeps with State Police
4th November 2024 · 0 Comments
By Katie Jane Fernelius
Contributing Writer
(Veritenews.org) — Following the state’s unilateral and abrupt decision to sweep homeless encampments around the city last month, a New Orleans City council member is pushing Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration to enter into a formal agreement governing its relationship with Troop NOLA, the contingent of state troopers operating in the city since earlier this year under the directive of Gov. Jeff Landry.
The issue came up Monday (Oct. 30) during the council’s budget hearings after New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick confirmed her agency does not have a written agreement with the Louisiana State Police.
Verite News first reported the lack of an agreement with the state on Thursday, one day after Troop NOLA led the operation to take down the encampments in advance of Taylor Swift’s weekend of concerts at the Superdome.
During a cordial back-and-forth following a department presentation on its 2025 budget, Harris took the opportunity to press Kirkpatrick on the issue.
“Do we have any sort of written agreement?” Harris followed up.
“No,” Kirkpatrick said.
“I guess the question is, why not?” Harris said.
“I think it’s a legal issue with the attorneys as to whether or not they actually need it,” Kirkpatrick said. “We’ll let the legal beagles figure that out.”
In response, Harris said that the department should work with its legal representation to hammer out an agreement of some kind before the 2025 Super Bowl, which is being hosted in the Superdome and is expected to draw tens of thousands of visitors to the city, “especially given what has happened over the past week,” she said.
Asked for comment after the meeting, an NOPD spokesperson said that no written agreement is currently planned with the state.
It was on Wednesday, October 23, Troop NOLA – assisted by officers from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, along with other state agencies – began sweeping the Calliope homeless encampment ahead of the concerts. The sweeps, which troopers carried out over two days, came against the explicit wishes of city officials, who said they would hamper the city’s long-term plans to reduce homelessness and find housing for encampment residents.
They came to an end on two days later, October 25, when Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Lori Jupiter issued a temporary restraining order against the State Police, ordering them to halt the sweeps. The TRO was granted in response to a lawsuit filed by two unhoused residents who were affected by the sweeps.
NOPD was not involved in the operation. And Verite News learned that the Cantrell administration did not have any formal agreement with the State Police directing the terms of Troop NOLA’s deployment in the city.
A previous long-term deployment of state troopers – brought in during former Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration – in and around the French Quarter was governed by a cooperative endeavor agreement.
That CEA provided the city some control over how the troopers operated, calling for state patrol plans to be based on the needs of the NOPD’s 8th District, which covers the French Quarter and surrounding neighborhoods. And under the agreement, State Police officials would be required to coordinate shift assignments and patrol areas with the 8th District.
The lack of any such agreement now gives the State Police, an agency under a federal civil rights investigation, the freedom to conduct operations without the city’s input, said Bruce Reilly, deputy director of Voters Organized to Educate.
“There’s no rules-of-engagement agreement between the state and local police,” Reilly told Verite News.
Reilly noted that the city has recently entered into such agreements with other agencies. The NOPD is entering into a memorandum of agreement with the Louisiana National Guard to support local counter drug efforts.
Reilly said the National Guard partnership troubles him. At one point, addressing the council, he said, “Let’s just start letting the National Guard be doing law enforcement here in the city; I wonder what could go wrong?”
But unlike the informal arrangement with Troop NOLA, the agreement with the National Guard – which the council approved this month – puts limits on the force’s assistance to the NOPD. Under the contract, National Guard troops can only perform investigative analysis, outreach efforts to reduce drug demand and aerial reconnaissance. It prohibits them from carrying firearms or acting as law enforcement officers as part of their counter drug mission.
The influence of the state came up repeatedly during Monday’s council meeting – which included a series of budget hearings for agencies in the criminal justice system.
During the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office’s budget presentation, Harris asked DA Jason Williams about his relationship with both Troop NOLA and the attorney general’s office. Williams’ office entered into a cooperative endeavor agreement that allows the AG’s office to prosecute cases that follow arrests by Troop NOLA officers or that the State Police was involved in investigating.
“What’s your relationship like?” Harris asked. “What’s your experience?”
“Like all things in 2024, in America today, it’s complicated,” Williams answered. He said that while their offices find a lot of common ground in addressing violent crime, there can sometimes be a lack of coordination.
Despite the fact that top officials in the city government – including Director of the Office of Homeless Services and Strategies Nate Fields – came out in opposition to the sweeps, Mayor LaToya Cantrell herself has not made any public statements about last week’s operation.
Asked for comment on Monday, her press secretary, Leatrice Dupre, said Cantrell wouldn’t provide comment, citing the ongoing lawsuit. The mayor has previously expressed support for Troop NOLA.
Landry’s office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time. When contacted for an update on Monday, Louisiana State Police spokesperson Sgt. Kate Stegall said that the State Police, in conjunction with the Attorney General’s office, were still reviewing the TRO and had no update to provide either.
In an interview, Harris said that councilmembers should continue to press the department on the issue.
“The council should determine why there isn’t a current [memorandum of understanding] between NOPD and Troop NOLA,” Harris told Verite News. “A basic, written understanding of the separation of authority and duties could prevent events like the encampment sweep that happened last week.”
Harris said she planned to meet with the Governor’s Office on Tuesday (Oct. 29) to discuss “the aftermath and traumatic impact” of the sweeps.
“My primary goal for this meeting is to address how the city, our partner agencies, and the state can move forward,” Harris said.
In the meantime, Harris is working with city departments such as the Health Department and the Office of Homeless Services and Strategies, as well as local homeless outreach nonprofits such as Unity of Greater New Orleans and the Travelers Aid Society to find people who were displaced by the sweeps and connect them with caseworkers, so that they can work to move them into stable housing.
This article originally published in the November 4, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
