NOPD, council member want to pull cops away from minor accidents

A campaign is underway to get approval for a proposed police that would allow the undermanned NOPD to no longer dispatch cops to handle minor accidents, WWL reported last week.

Similar to the establishment of a Civilian Parol Service that is utilized in the French Quarter, the new proposal would free up additional cops to improve public safety and patrol the streets of New Orleans.

“We’ve been waiting about an hour and a half, and three police cars passed us by,” Theresa Philpot told WWL , as she waited recently at an accident scene.

While Louisiana law requires law enforcement officers to investigate an accident, New Orleans City Council member Stacy Head and NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison are seeking to change the law.

“You do have the ability to respond to violent crimes much more quickly if you don’t have a lot of calls ahead for minor car accidents, and things like that,” Head told WWL.

“It is very high on my priority list,” said Supt. Michael Harrison. “It will essentially be for non-injury crashes.”

“What happens is if the New Orleans Police Department does not respond to a minor accident or a fender bender, everyone is going to be on their own,” WWL legal analyst Chick Foret said. “This is going to clog up the civil courts, this is going to make litigation much more difficult.”

“We are not going to let the private either insurance market or plaintiff attorney market stop us,” said Head. ”The lobbyists for both the insurance companies and the trial lawyers will agree that they will be against any change in legislation,” said Foret.

Head said she is working with legislators to create bills for the upcoming session about this issue, and Chief Harrison said he supports that effort.

“I’d like to partner with this council and the New Orleans business community to get behind this,” said Harrison.

“You’re going to want a contemporaneous report written indicating the observations of that trained police officer,” said Foret.

“I think they should come to all the accidents,” said Philpott. A police spokesman. He said minor accidents could be reported online. The reports would be reviewed by an officer, and a supervisor would have to approve the police report. A Louisiana Insurance Department spokeswoman told WWL that the agency has not taken a position on changing the law at this time.

This article originally published in the October 12, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.