New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell canceled a trip to an environmental conference in Singapore this week, and said she would instead "embed herself with the NOPD" to see what the department needs to effectively fight crime. The head of the New Orleans Police officers' union says what they want to see is a cultural change.
Police Association of New Orleans President Michael Glasser says fewer than every two days, they're losing a cop: "One every 46 hours."
And he says it is not money -- it is that officers get the sense their leadership does not have their backs, and that favoritism and nepotism are rampant.
"It's the disciplinary system of the Public Integrity Bureau, promotions, favoritism, things that are going on politically in the department. Not just the money," said Glasser. "Money is a very minor issue."
Glasser says it will take changes at the top, particularly in PIB, but if those changes happen, retention at NOPD will improve.
"That department needs to be overhauled, and if that department is overhauled and they do their job correctly and they do it equitably, I think you'll see the attrition fall off and we'll start retaining people," he said.