In the buildup to the Carnival parade season in New Orleans, Mayor LaToya Cantrell sent out a message to the country that the city would pay for certified officers to come and help secure those famous parades.
It’s been no secret that the New Orleans Police Department, like many police agencies across the country, has been severely short in its manpower.
On Tuesday’s edition of the Newell Normand Show, a professor at the University of New Orleans and a local crime watchdog, explained what he discovered through his extensive research of public records pertaining to payroll at the New Orleans Police Department.
Skip Gallagher told Newell that he found several instances of questionable numbers, especially those surrounding the pay of the officers assigned to Mayor Cantrell’s security detail. For Gallagher, the amount of money going to that detail team is just one area of concern.
“There are a few, but one of the more disturbing ones is maybe how much we’re for those details. Just those three NOPD officers, their pay for the years 2021 which is the most recent data that I have on them, is $300,000, just a hair under $300,000. The officers were paid $99,000/year and one of the officers was paid $96,000/year and there’s one more officer, but I don’t what that officer was paid. That’s a sheriff’s officer,” said Gallagher.
At a time when the NOPD has been struggling to increase response times to emergencies, Gallagher says there seems to be more security around the mayor than there are for average citizens.
“One of the disturbing factors here is how often the officers seem to work sort of around 8 am- 8 pm sort of, and they’re often scheduled at the same time. And it’s difficult to imagine why you would need four officers. I think our last mayor one assigned to him at typical times and as you know, we have districts that don’t have that man officers on the street sometimes,” said Gallagher.
Listen here to the full conversation including what else Skip Gallagher found in the NOPD’s payroll data that he says is concerning.
