The New Orleans Police Department is one step closer to being released from the federal consent decree that has governed it for more than a decade.
On Friday, the city of New Orleans and the United States Department of Justice jointly filed a motion asking a judge to lift that consent decree. Judge Suzie Morgan, who has overseen the consent decree since it was first implemented 12 years ago, would have to approve both the joint motion and the sustainment plan.
The million-dollar question is: Is the NOPD ready to be released from the consent decree?
"The Department of Justice apparently believes they're ready," Metropolitan Crime Commission president Rafael Goyeneche said. "The next step is that the judge has to believe that the police department is ready. Today's motion is significant. The adverse parties, both the Department of Justice and the city of New Orleans, are telling the court that they believe that (the NOPD) is in substantial compliance, but it doesn't matter until the judge agrees that they are in substantial compliance (with the consent decree)."
If the judge agrees with the DOJ and city officials, the NOPD would be placed under a two-year sustainment plan. If the NOPD completes that plan without any problems, the department would be independent for the first time since then-mayor Mitch Landrieu and then-attorney general Eric Holder approved and signed the consent decree.
""We still have two more years after the judge bangs the gavel and says the police department is in substantial compliance before the consent decree terminates," Goyeneche said. "During that two-year period, there will be audits conducted to ensure the department is maintaining that substantial compliance. Ultimately at the end of that two-year period if they're not in substantial compliance, the judge can extend the consent decree."
Goyeneche credits NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick for getting the NOPD to this point. Goyeneche says the NOPD superintendent Kirkpatrick averted a potential crisis by acknowledging problems in the investigation into now-indicted officer Jeffrey Vappie and set into motion protocols to prevent similar problems from happening again. That, Goyeneche says, kept the city from being sanctioned by the court and led to improved relations between the city and the federal judge.
"Because the mayor has allowed her to do and use her experience, that's why the department is in this position today to virtually be on the cusp of substantial compliance with the consent decree," Goyeneche said.
