Two months after taking office, New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu asked the Justice Department to help implement a root-and-branch reform of the city's notoriously corrupt police department. Earlier today, Justice released a scathing report accusing the NOPD of a staggering litany of illegal and unconstitutional conduct.
After a 10-month investigation that officials said was unprecedented in scope, the Justice Department issued a report saying that police engaged in racial profiling against the city’s black majority. From January 2009 to May 2010, for example, officers used deadly force against 27 people, officials said. All 27 were African American.
In releasing their findings at a news conference in New Orleans, Justice officials vowed to work with the city to reform the scandal-plagued department, whose reputation has further deteriorated since Hurricane Katrina. The government is not suing New Orleans but plans to implement reforms through a court-ordered settlement.
The report makes for pretty horrifying reading. Among other things, the NOPD discriminated against blacks and gays, largely ignored sexual assaults and domestic violence, and frequently engaged in unlawful stops, searches and arrests. Much of this, however, probably isn't news to any New Orleans and Louisiana Kossacks.
According to the Times-Picayune, Hurricane Katrina merely shone a spotlight on problems that existed well before 2005.
Officers were too quick to use excessive force on the streets and, too often, neglected to document such use of force after the fact. The investigations that followed were inadequate, even in the most serious cases, when an officer fired his gun, the Justice Department found.
New Orleans police also routinely stop people without any legal basis for doing so, often conducting "pat-down" searches that don't meet the requirements of federal law, investigators concluded.
How bad is it? Officers frequently encourage each other to use excessive force, and many officer-involved shootings were incompetently handled. Thomas Perez, head of the civil rights division, said that this behavior is the result of "systemic" problems "deeply rooted in the culture of the department," such as inadequate training and supervision.
It's a foregone conclusion that the NOPD will be placed under federal supervision. Negotiations for a consent decree are already underway.