NOPD is pressured to end ‘banishment’ of cops in City Park trailer

13th October 2014   ·   0 Comments

Cops say they are treated like ‘trailer trash’

For the last best personal loans victoria few years an increasing number of residents have whispered about “The Five Horsemen,” four NOPD captains and a major allegedly banished to languish on their jobs in a FEMA trailer in City Park for some unknown infraction. Some residents wondered what the high-ranking officers could have done to warrant being given such a harsh sentence by the department’s top brass while others have driven past the FEMA trailer parked near the horse stables hoping to catch a glimpse of these urban legends.

The New Orleans Advocate reported earlier this month that a decision by the city’s Civil Service Commission made it clear that these five officers are not only real but are carrying out the tedious task of reviewing complaints filed against other officers under less than ideal conditions in a FEMA trailer. The CSC told the NOPD to resolve the situation by Oct. 16.

On Thursday, Oct. 2, the Civil Service Commission told the NOPD that it must either lay off or demote the five officers or find new assignments for them commensurate with their rank.

The cops, who have referred to themselves as “trailer trash,” have spent more than three years in the FEMA trailer.

The New Orleans Advocate reported that the City of New Orleans has not demonstrated any intention of returning these five officers to any significant assignments in the NOPD and that Mayor Mitch Landrieu and former NOPD Superintendent Ronal Serpas have repeatedly resisted efforts to end the officers’ banishment.

In a letter to Serpas’ successor, Interim Supt. Michael Harrison, Civil Service Director Lisa Hudson on Oct. 2 that the tasks currently being performed by the five officers signature installment loans checksmart are being re-assigned to lieutenant positions and that “the police major position and the police captain positions are effectively abolished as a result of the reallocation.”

Hudson gave the interim police chief until Oct. 16 to lay off, demote or reassign the five officers who found themselves on the outs with the Serpas administration more than three years ago and have struggled to be reassigned or relieved of their current post ever since.

“As police superintendent, and in accordance with the attached order, you may either proceed with reducing the complainants in rank or assign the complainants job duties consistent with their permanent civil service classification,” Hudson told Harrison.

The five officers, known by NOPD officials as the Administrative Support Unit, has referred to themselves as the “trailer trash,” a nod to their humble workspace next to the old police horse stable and the fact that they believe they had been discarded like garbage by the superintendent and the Landrieu administration.

They banded together this summer and mounted a successful challenge to their current assignments, convincing the Civil Service Commission to step in and resolve the conflict.

Ironically, their hard-pressed victory came in August, the same month that NOPD Supt. Ronal Serpas unexpectedly announced his retirement.

It is believed that an officer-involved shooting that left a suspect with an injury to the head during which the NOPD body camera was turned off may have contributed to Serpas’ decision to step down on August 18. The incident went unreported for two days after which the superintendent blamed the misstep on a mistake by a public information officer.

The tide began to turn for the five bad credit installment loans direct lender only officers when the Civil Service Commission granted them 10 percent pay raises like those given to members of the Public Integrity Bureau for tasks deemed “unpleasant.”

That win was followed by a ruling in August that told the NOPD that it had to either return the disgraced officers to their former duties or demote them. The Landrieu administration had long insisted that the work the five officers had been assigned to perform in the trailer was appropriate for the officers’ ranks.

The New Orleans Advocate reported that the Landrieu administration has since given no indication it plans to find more appropriate work assignments for them.

NOPD spokesman Tyler Gamble told The New Orleans Advocate that Interim Supt. Michael Harrison had just received the letter from Civil Service.

“The chief is reviewing it with the city attorney,” Gamble said. “We’re still just kind of reviewing our options and what next steps we can take with it.”

Although eight officers were once exiled to the FEMA trailer, only five remain: Capts. Bruce Adams, Bruce Little, Fred Morton and Michael Glasser, the president of the Police Association of New Orleans, and Maj. Raymond Burkart Jr.

Their attorneys contend that the decision to banish them to perform tedious work in a FEMA trailer was the end-result of a questionable move by Serpas in 2011 to create up a new tier of police “commanders” — a title that did not equate to a particular rank in the civil service system.

They say Serpas then moved lieutenants into several of those posts in a leapfrog move that infuriated police groups like the Fraternal Order of Police and PANO, who saw these changes cash advance in Oklahoma City Okla. as a ploy to skirt the rules of the civil service system.

While the newly minted commanders were assigned the high-profile jobs of managing the eight police districts and other NOPD units, the “trailer trash” were given the title of “integrity control officers: and assigned the tedious job of investigating officers accused of lying failing to show up in court or other low-level offenses.

Eric Hessler, a PANO attorney, called the impending decision a bellwether for what he described as a power grab in Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s campaign for civil service reform.

“I don’t know why the mayor would do anything but demote them, because that’s his intention, to make the civil service system a relic and reinstitute political appointments,” Hessler told The New Orleans Advocate. “That’s exactly what happened with the commanders. In the near future, you’ll see him ask for the position of assistant commanders, and he’ll be able to appoint anybody he chooses. Their intention is to hand-pick yes-men and lapdogs.”

Before they were exiled to a FEMA trailer and given tedious work assignments, the five officers held high posts in the department, including deputy chief, district commander, head of the narcotics division and Public Integrity Bureau commander.

Any demotions for the officers likely would spur a new round of legal battles, with accusations of retaliation.

Some say that the wording of Hudson’s letter left it unclear as to whether the city plans to eliminate all captain and major position in the NOPD. Hudson could not be reached for clarification.

Raymond Burkart III told WWL-TV Tuesday that the narrow, two-week deadline for Interim Chief Harrison to make a decision may personal loan kobena now mean that the officers’ recent Civil Service victory could lead to them losing their rank in the department.

“We certainly believe it’s unfair to give a superintendent who’s just on the job two weeks to make one of the most important decisions a superintendent could make in a personnel shift,” Burkart said. “Cut the politics and put people where they’re supposed to be. Make this a great place to work, not the hell-hole it’s been for the past few years.”

“It’s our interpretation that they’re referring to the people that are involved in the suit,” Gamble told The New Orleans Advocate.

The NOPD currently has 15 police captains and one major — Burkart. The city’s 2014 budget lists 21 police captain positions and two major spots. The department has reportedly made no moves to fill the seven vacant budgeted slots — six of which are captain positions and one major slot.

Although it’s been almost two months since Serpas stepped down, there appears to be little activity with regard to finding a police chief.

When Michael Harrison was introduced in August as the interim NOPD superintendent, New Orl­eans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said he supported the idea of making Harrison the permanent replacement for Serpas. “Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” Landrieu joked.

Still, Landrieu encouraged local groups and residents to give input on the search for a new police chief to lead the embattled department as it entered Year 2 of its consent decree.

Civil rights leaders and community activists have said that they hope to avoid the kind of confusion and controversy that clouded the newly elected mayor’s first search for a police chief. payday loan companies no longer trading During that search, at least four committee members — including NAACP New Orleans Branch president Danatus King — resigned because they said they were not allowed to provide input on the selection of a new police chief/

To that end, Community United for Change wrote the New Orleans City Council last week seeking an opportunity to weigh in on the search for a new superintendent.

“CUC has gone on record opposing the appointment of Ronal Serpas as Chief of Police throughout Superintendent Serpas’ tenure,” the grassroots organization said in its letter to the Council. “CUC believes, as many citizens and police officers of New Orleans believe, the plight of NOPD, over the past five years, has been at the feet of Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s lifelong friend, Ronal Serpas. To this end, CUC is compelled to petition the City Council for its assistance in creating a panel of normal citizens (as opposed to a blue-ribbon commission) to select nominees for the position of Chief of Police. CUC believes the ills of the past administration can only continue the decay of an ailing and aging police department.

“With all due respect to (Interim Supt.) Harrison, CUC believes Harrison exhibits the same methodology and wayward spirit the previous administration em­braced,” the letter continued. “CUC is not saying members of the current police force are not capable of being police chief, only that a closer consideration of all candidates, foreign and domestic, should be considered equally when weighing the final balance.

“Since the people of New Orleans have suffered at great lengths with unconstitutional policing, it is only fitting that the people of New Orleans have a proper payday loan clients hand in the selection process,” the letter concludes. “CUC would hope our current City Council will have an interest in the proper selection of the next police chief and since the City Council is burdened with the task of financing the NOPD, CUC thinks it only fitting for our Council to try something different this time around.

“The people of New Orleans need a committed lobbyist to govern the city. Will you join with CUC in making this a reality?”

“Since the people of New Orleans have suffered unconstitutional policing for more years that most can remember, the people of New Orleans owe it to themselves to take charge and care with who will be the next police chief.” W.C. Johnson, a CUC member and host of the local cable-access show “OurStory,” told The Louisiana Weekly Thursday. “Unfortunately, the mayor gave the people of New Orleans a false sense of inclusion when he was first elected by appointing a committee to search for candidates for the post of police chief. The mayor disappointed most when he played a trump card to get Ronal Serpas appointed as police chief. Because of the bad choices the mayor has made for police chiefs, the people need to step forward to invoke the democratic process in determining who will fill the office of the police chief this time.”

The Louisiana Weekly sought comment on the Landrieu administration;s search for a new police chief but did not get a response before it went to press.

This article originally published in the October 13, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.