Posted on 11/19/2024 8:23:03 AM PST by DFG
The New Orleans Police Department is grappling with a staffing crisis, with officer numbers at their lowest since the 1940s and facing mounting financial penalties for falling short of state-mandated thresholds.
According to a report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor's office, between 2019 and 2023, the department lost 26.6% of its staff in police districts, with a total of 776 employees — both civilian and commissioned — leaving during this period.
Of those departures, 496 were resignations, 205 were retirements, 46 were dismissals and 22 were attributed to death. The exodus has coincided with a steady decline in new recruits, with just 35 recruits joining the force so far in 2024, compared to 88 in 2023, 25 in 2022, and 42 in 2021.
The staffing shortages have triggered financial penalties under Louisiana law, which requires municipalities with significant staffing drops to cover their share of unfunded liabilities in the Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System.
Starting in July 2023, the city of New Orleans has been fined $50,314 monthly, with penalties set to rise to $214,113 per month by July 2024 unless staffing levels rebound. To reverse the penalties, the department would need an estimated 1,100 employees in the system.
The shortage has also raised concerns about the NOPD's ability to comply with a federal consent decree that requires reforms to address longstanding civil rights violations and misconduct. The consent decree, in effect since 2012, mandates fair, unbiased, and constitutional policing.
The department's depleted ranks have strained its capacity to meet these standards, particularly in responding to emergency calls for domestic violence and sexual assault cases.
The federal monitor overseeing the decree highlighted issues with "Gone on Arrival" dispositions, where officers fail to respond promptly to emergency calls.
(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...
Awhile back I watched a YouTube video of some guy talking to two young NYPD cops. All three were on a sidewalk.
The two NYPD cops sounded like they were mentally challenged. They weren’t angry or abusive. They just talked like they were dull (for the lack of a better word).
It looks like these big Democrat cities are in a death spiral when it comes to recruiting new officers. And it’s their own fault, of course.
Based on personal experience New Orleans police department is one of the most crooked, cruel and inept in the country. All my charges were dropped,but not before I spent a week in that foul New Orleans parish prison.
I am a graduate of Tulane University in New Orleans in the mid-70s. Your description of the New Orleans PD is all too accurate.
That’s what you get for “Winnowing the neanderthals out of the department.”
I have fond memories of when I thought to push the up elevator button instead the down to evade New Orleans cops, my buddy and I went up and then out to the fire escape, and then watched as NOPD flooded the lobby, all related to New Years in New Orleans, good times.
Yep. A city near me unofficially frowns on hiring veterans for police officers. I guess the vets aren’t woke enough. The city is clever, nothing can proved. But an insider whom I trust told me it happens.
Who would want to work in a cesspool big city anyway? I’d think it would be better to get your police certification, then apply to a nice suburban police department.
Less money, but also less grief.
Ferguson effect in full effect...
WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would patrol that African slum where the people, the city, and county HATE cops. Even if busted perps are back on the street in hours, if not minutes. AND there is a DA who advocates more for criminals than victims AND hates the cops too.
Put razor wire around the levies and leave them be.
Of course the goal is to have a Nationalized Police Force.
Imagine what Garland could have done with National Police, the JD would have shot hundreds that objected to federal rule at the local level.
“state-mandated thresholds”
Sure sounds like DEI
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