The United States Department of Justice says Louisiana State Police engages in a pattern and practice of violating constitutional rights by using excessive force improperly. Now that the DOJ has released its report discussing the investigation into Louisiana State Police and the findings of that inquest, will State Police be forced to submit to a federal consent decree.
Former New Orleans Police Department superintendent Ronal Serpas says: not necessarily.
"Any city or state should say, okay, let's take a look at how you got where you are and see where we are from there," Serpas said. "Not to avoid responsibility, not to obfuscate, but sometimes the math doesn't add up the same way when two groups of people do it, and it's worth doing that."
Serpas led the NOPD when it entered into its federal consent decree. He says any government agency facing a federal pattern and practice investigation has an obligation to the people it serves to challenge the investigative methods of the Department of Justice.
"There have been investigations done by the Department of Justice (that) when challenged on the math have been found that their math didn't work out," Serpas said. "Every agency has a right and a duty to its taxpayers and to its constitutional policing responsibility to actually challenge the methods that the Department of Justice used to create that finding, which has not been challenged in court yet--which has not been challenged by anyone yet."
If the state challenges the investigation and a judge finds the investigation was conducted properly, the state of Louisiana could be on the hook for the cost of a consent decree.
"The outcome of this could end up being tens of millions of dollars in monitoring fees," Serpas said. "At the end of the day, I know the governor and the attorney general of this state and every state want constitutional policing, but it is not unfair to challenge the Department of Justice's methods and analysis to get to that point."
