Three former New York police officers are in New Orleans to find solutions to the NOPD's staffing problem and the city's crime problem. One of them is a former second-in-command for the NYPD, and the others helped lead reforms in the NOPD in 1994.
What does the local police union hope comes from this new endeavor?
"I'm hoping that these fellow coming in are going to turn around and say the exact some things we have, and I hope the administration pays attention to it," Police Association of New Orleans president Michael Glasser told WWL's Tommy Tucker.
Glasser says the answers to the NOPD's problems are simple.
"It's really not a mystery, and it's really not a secret," Glasser said. "You can't magically create officers, but what you can do is stop the ones that are leaving."
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Glasser says the consultants can make two changes that would keep current officers on the force.
"The Public Integrity Bureau and the discipline system: that has to be revised, plain and simple," Glasser said. "Secondly, the promotional system has to be addressed, and that has to be revised."
Glasser also hopes the consultants call for the reshuffling of officers from some duties to others.
"Officers have to be redeployed, districts may have to be consolidated to save manpower, and we have to start doing less things that are now patrol oriented," Glasser said, adding that dedicating more officers to answering calls may cause other services to suffer.
Still he says this change and the others he suggested are necessary to fight crime.
"I'm sure they will (recommend them) because it's just common sense and it's good law enforcement strategy, and I have no reason to doubt that these guys don't know exactly what they're doing. They were successful where they came from."
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