NOPD grilled over body cameras

22nd September 2014   ·   0 Comments

In the wake of several high-profile NOPD murder cases and ongoing efforts to completely overhaul the embattled New Orleans Police Department, body cameras were touted as a way to increase officer accountability, but new information in one officer-involved shooting raises questions about how often police are using body cameras and dash cameras, WWL-TV reported Tuesday.

“It’s an unbiased unvarnished record of exactly what happened,” former New Orleans Police Depart­ment Superintendent Ronal Serpas said when the body cameras were rolled out in the spring. The body cameras are part of a federally mandated NOPD consent decree ta has been under way since August 2013.

Unfortunately, the NOPD’s adoption of body cameras made no difference in an officer-involved shooting last month in the 3600 block of Mimosa Court in Algiers.

According to NOPD spokesman Tyler Gamble, Officer Lisa Lewis wasn’t wearing a body camera when she shot Armand Bennett, 26, in the head during a traffic stop. Officer Lewis’ partner’s camera wasn’t turned on, and neither was the police cruiser dash cam, Gamble said.

Earlier reports said that the body camera had been turned off shortly before the incident because the officers were about to complete their work shift. That fact, coupled with the knowledge that the incident wasn’t reported for two day, is believed to have played a role in former NOPD Supt. Ronald Serpas’ decision to step down.

“I’m very concerned about that, and hope that the fact there is no video will glorify or highlight that officers can turn these cams off and on,” Nandi Campbell, Bennett’s attorney, told WWL-TV.

Video could have shown whether Bennett fought with the officer — a key disparity in Bennett’s version of the incident and the NOPD’s.

WWL-TV said Tuesday that a recent report shows the issue may be widespread. Dash cameras are also required by the NOPD consent decree, Washington, DC-based Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, the federal monitor, released a report this month showing only one-third of incidents involving use of force were recorded.

Gamble pointed out that Sheppard Mullin examined use-of-force reports written before body cameras were fully instituted, although dash cameras were already installed at the time.

NOPD policy requires patrol officers to turn on body cameras during traffic stops and calls for service.

“There has to be consequences for officers failing to comply with police department orders to initiate and engage that technology when they’re dealing with the public,” Rafael Goyeneche, executive director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, told WWL-TV.

NOPD officials recently confirmed that Armand Bennett was unarmed during the incident with Officer Lisa Lewis. His attorney, Nandi Campbell, said last week that he is recovering from the graze wound. And as police investigate the shooting, Campbell said she has launched her own investigation and is calling for more accountability when it comes to whether officers are turning on their cameras.

The NOPD’s Public Integrity Bureau is awaiting scientific test results before it completes its criminal investigation and recommends whether charges should be filed against Lewis, Simone Levine, a deputy police monitor, told WWL-TV.

The Independent Police Monitor’s office is reportedly very concerned by the lack of video, and is pushing for PIB to investigate whether Lewis violated administrative policies.

Nearly a month after Eyewitness News requested an incident report, the NOPD records department made it available for release last week, though the report reveals very little.

Campbell told WWL-TV that Officer Lewis and her partner also had their cameras off when they stopped Bennett 10 days earlier, but NOPD says Lewis’s camera was on.

“We’re going to do everything we can to increase the transparency and accountability of the NOPD as a whole,” Gamble told WWL-TV. “We’re going to address these types of issues on a case-by-case basis. It may require training or it may require discipline.”

Gamble said supervisors randomly review the video, but the department is working to refine its policies and will look at training or disciplining officers who violate them.

Police were initially criticized for not informing the public about the officer-involved shooting until days later. Serpas later explained to reporters that he approved a press release about the incident but a public information officer accidentally failed to send it.

In its third quarterly report, federal monitor Sheppard Mullin said that as many as two-thirds of the dash cameras in NOPD vehicles are malfunctioning

“This not only violates the consent decree, but it puts citizens and officers at risk. It also fosters an unhealthy cynicism among officers,” Sheppard Mullin wrote earlier this month.

Not everyone has bought Serpas’ explanation for the NOPD’s failure to report the shooting or its failure to comply with the changes mandated by the NOPD consent decree.

Ramessu Merriamen Aha, a New Orleans businessman and former congressional candidate, said he isn’t buying any of the NOPD’s excuses for not doing what the consent decree requires to bring the department up to federal standards for constitutional policing.

“It’s mind-boggling and exasperating to see how blatantly this police department refuses to comply with this federally mandated consent decree,” Aha told The Louisiana Weekly. “It refuses to use the body and dash cameras, refuses to stop racially profiling Black men and boys, continues to violate changes to off-duty detail rules and continues to harass residents who live in low-income communities without provocation or cause.

“These are not the actions of a police department that respects the U.S. Constitution or the constitutional rights of New Orleans residents,” Aha continued. “These are the actions of a law enforcement agency controlled by and beholden to the white business community, pure and simple.”

W.C. Johnson, a member of Community United for Change and host of the local cable-access show “OurStory,” called the NOPD body-camera issue “an interesting phenomenon” when asked about it Thursday.

“The city was solid in their position against body cameras when CUC brought the concept to the table,” Johnson told The Louisiana Weekly. “The city’s opposition followed the process all the way to the City Council where the members of the City Council wanted an accounting of the excess money allocated in previous years for police officers that were not employed. This is when the body cameras were introduced by then Police Chief Ronal Serpas as a budgetary expense for monies NOPD could not account for. Now the body cameras suddenly become a great idea.”

In an earlier interview, Johnson told The Weekly that CUC will move ahead with its efforts to train and prepare civilians to protect themselves and their communities by lawfully observing police officers as they carry out their sworn duties.

Members of CUC and other grassroots organizations have said repeatedly that the remedy assigned to overhaul the NOPD does not reflect the spot-on diagnosis of the DOJ report on corruption and abuse in the NOPD.

For this reason, Johnson says he is not the least bit surprised by the challenges associated with implementing lasting, substantive change in the NOPD. “The original ‘Findings’ by the DOJ were not mirrored in the final consent degree,” he explained last week. “Throughout the ‘Findings,’ DOJ spotlighted the patterns and practices of unlawful conduct. These patterns and practices were referred to as a ‘Culture of Corruption and a Crisis of Constitutional Ignorance,’ which could only be remedied by total leadership change and strict adherence to constitutional policing. Within the ‘Findings’ letter, it was acknowledged that community involvement was necessary every step of the remediation process and community oversight was an important component in rectifying the damage to public safety NOPD caused over the sundried years.
“Section 1 category B, General Provision, subcategory 9; of the Consent Decree eliminates the community by stating, ‘This Agreement is enforceable only by the parties (signers to this agreement). No person or entity is intended to be a third-party beneficiary of the provisions of this Agreement for purposes of any civil, criminal, or administrative actions.’ This clause goes on to nullify any claims or rights to other parties as well.

“The problems we are experiencing associated with the implementation of the consent decree were all spelled out in court during the attempts of the City of New Orleans to perfect a consent decree without public input,” Johnson told The Louisiana Weekly. “The evidence and testimony delivered against the city during these hearings have all come to fruition. The lack of official Community Oversight has cost everyone involved innumerous both organic and inorganic hardships.”

Johnson said the weakened consent decree has been further undermined by the federal monitor’s failure to hold NOPD and CNO officials accountable for the shortcomings associated with ongoing implementation of the consent decree.

“Sheppard Mullin continues to take big hits from the community with the arrogance and aristocratic demeanor the firm displays in New Orleans,” Johnson said. “I hasten to add that this was the pick of the DOJ. Most community members thought the better firms were eliminated in the last round picks.

“It is possible that the court is beginning to pick up on the problems with Sheppard Mullin because the court has ordered a hearing on September 24 for an update on body-worn and in-car cameras,” Johnson added. “It is interesting to note that Serpas’ unscheduled retirement was announced only a few days after a NOPD officer turned her body camera off before shooting an unarmed motorist, and NOPD not making this public for two days. This may just signal a crack in the iceberg.”

Sheppard Mullin will hold two public meetings to present its recent findings and respond to questions or comments from residents. Those meetings will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. in Xavier University’s University Center (Room 205), 1 Drexel Drive; and on Wednesday, 24, 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. in the Ashé Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd.

Additional reporting by Louisiana Weekly editor Edmund W. Lewis.

This article originally published in the September 22, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.