New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell today announced that no city employee will be permitted to participate in public meetings on the federal consent decree that regulates the New Orleans Police Department without her express permission. It effectively boycotts the public event that U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan had scheduled for Wednesday at Loyola School of Law.
Judge Morgan canceled the public meeting.
Cantrell has been trying to end the decade-old consent decree, insisting that the NOPD has met its benchmarks.
"The dedicated women and men of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) have worked diligently for ten years to satisfy the constitutional policing requirements of the Federal Consent Decree," the mayor said in a statement. "This dramatic progress, repeatedly acknowledged by the Federal Monitors and the Court, is a significant part of the reason why last August I asked the Department of Justice to transition the Consent Decree into a less burdensome model. That plan was rejected."
Federal monitors say they have witnessed NOPD falling out of compliance in some areas that had previously shown promise.
"We've seen slippage, and it is within NOPD’s power to fix these things," federal monitor Jonathan Aronie said at a the previous public meeting. "NOPD is not in compliance, and it will require focused effort to bring it into compliance."
Monitors say increasing response times and incorrect downgrading of calls are among the problems.