New Orleans City Council President Jason Williams today will introduce his proposal to create a citizens advisory committee to examine how the city spends money in the criminal justice system.
Williams says the panel will be made up of people with experience helping marginalized groups.
"As chair of the Crime Justice Committee, I believe these reforms should be addressed with the input from voices often left out of government decision making", he said.
Williams said while police and district attorney's office have relatively easy access to the council to talk about funding, the people who are subject to that policing have very little say.
Williams says it's not necessarily about "defunding" elements of the criminal justice system.
"They're talking about making sure that they're tax dollars are not being used to abuse them," he explained.
The committee will also discuss the New Orleans Police Department's response to a protest that marched up to the Crescent City Connection last week. When some protesters began to march into the line police formed on the bridge, the department deployed tear gas to disperse the crowd. Some officers fired what NOPD Superintendent Shaun Ferguson described as rubber ball "stinger" rounds at protesters.
The committee meets at 1:00 p.m.