(The Center Square) — In late August, the New Orleans Police Department reported the lowest number of commissioned officers since the 1940s, at 887.
Currently, public data from the City Council reports 897 officers.
New recruit numbers have also been in decline ever since the federal consent decree, which established a court-appointed monitor, the law firm of Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, LLP, to evaluate and report on the implementation of the decree and its impact on NOPD’s constitutional and professional conduct.
City officials, the police department and the Department of Justice entered into the decree on July 24, 2012.
The latest data cites 35 recruits so far in 2024. There were 88 recruits who joined the force in 2023, 25 in 2022 and 42 in 2021.
Gov. Jeff Landry has expressed a sharp dissatisfaction with the decree, saying in a February news conference that “The New Orleans Police Department is in shambles, because of a federal consent decree and a federal judge.”
The decree was a response to a long history of civil rights violations and misconduct in the NOPD, particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A 2011 report from the Department of Justice found routine use of unnecessary and unreasonable force, violations of the Fourth Amendment, discriminatory policing and failures to provide the supervision necessary to prevent or detect misconduct and ensure effective policing.
In early 2024, Landry established a permanent State Police troop in New Orleans, which is supposed to deploy 40 troopers to the city.
On Saturday, Landry issued a statement calling all police officers to the Pelican State, citing his administration’s back-the-blue policies.
“This legislative session, our Legislature passed a number of bills that were signed into law in protecting our police officers, and sending a signal to the rest of the country that we back our men and women in blue,” Landry said. “We passed things like the Halo Act, which makes it illegal for people to interfere with a police officer and encroach upon them in less than twenty-five feet.”
