The New Orleans Police Department has long struggled with staffing shortages. Currently, the NOPD employs around 900 officers, approximately 300 fewer than needed to adequately patrol the city without leaning significantly on overtime.
Since being sworn in as NOPD Superintendent in 2023, Anne Kirpatrick has led the charge to tackle a list of major departmental issues, from ending the federal consent decree to lowering rising violent crime rates to bolstering security on Bourbon Street and the French Quarter following the January 1st terror attack.
With the help of the entire police department and various city agencies/partners, Kirkpatrick's efforts, so far, have been largely effective.
In November 2025, a U.S. district judge officially ended the consent decree of over a dozen years. This summer, New Orleans' homicide rate hit a 55-year low.
Now, the NOPD police chief sets her focus on supporting recruitment without lowering entry standards and requirements.
Kirkpatrick joined WWL to discuss the evolving plan to address this chronic issue. (Hear the full interview by clicking the player above.)
“In 2025, we did hire over 100 new officers,” Kirkpatrick explains. “But by the time you do your attrition, you only have a net gain of around 25 to 30. And that's just not going to dig us out of the hole.”
The hiring goal for 2026, Kirkpatrick states, is to bring on 200 officers.
“That would put us with a net gain of 100,” she says. “We've actually just bought some recruiting tools that will help us with advertising. And thanks to the city committing to the police department, they have been willing to give us some very necessary funding that we've needed to do the recruiting.”
The NOPD’s recruitment challenges, however, have been exacerbated by the city’s budget crisis. And recently, Louisiana State Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack recommended keeping the police force at 900 to avoid onboarding costs and additional salaries. Kirkpatrick was vocal in her disagreement with this strategy.
However, despite pushing against Waguespack’s recommendation, Kirkpatrick affirms the desire to make decisions based on the least expensive outcome, so long as that outcome doesn’t deteriorate public safety.
This case leads to questions such as: Is overtime pay more expensive than bringing on recruits?
“Is it less expensive to do overtime and break even?” Kirkpatrick ponders. “Or is it less expensive to just invest $16 million in new hires? And there's always a break-even point between when it is least expensive to do the overtime. The problem with overtime is that it also has an impact on the wellness of officers.”
Under the new mayoral administration, overtime projections are receiving much stricter guardrails, given NOPD OT was one of the largest drivers of the city’s massive deficit that forced New Orleans to take out a $125 million payday loan to get the city through the end of the fiscal year.
“We are providing projections every month to the city for approval for our overtime, and so far we've come under the request, and so we're pleased for that,” Kirkaptrick explains.
New Orleans to experiment with new methods of policing
Kirkpatrick reveals that the bilateral pressure of being short on both staff and money forces New Orleans to identify non-traditional methods of effective policing.
“We're going to be one of the first cities in the country that will accept part-time police officers,” Kirkpatrick says. “The issue is you're going have to come already P.O.S.T-certified. If you're a lateral… you have to come from another agent's state where you're already certified.”
The NOPD has posted a listing for part-time lateral officers with a starting salary of $54,421 annually.
“You will work approximately 42.75 hours in a two-week pay cycle. Incentive pay may be prorated based on the number of hours worked,” the listing states.
“I'd rather have two part-timers…than to have no officer,” Kirkpatrick explains. “So there you go. Y'all look at our website. If you're interested, we're interested in you as a part-time officer.”
Another proposed solution Kirkpatrick has explored is hiring retired officers to perform clerical work, freeing up current officers to spend more time on patrol.
“We did do that homework as well with the pension system… we can indeed bring back someone who has retired, employ them as a part-time officer, and it will not affect their pension,” she explains.
First responder drones are coming to the Crescent City
To reduce administrative bloat, some advocate for consolidating police districts, pointing out that New Orleans doesn’t need eight districts given its population.
However, Kirkpatrick says she has no plans to take this approach yet. Instead, her focus is securing enough power — man or machine — to patrol these districts.
“One of the things we have been looking at is using technology—specifically drones—as a first responder. We're gonna be doing it as a pilot here in the eighth district, which is the French Quarter and our CBD. But think about the seventh district, all of that East New Orleans, a huge mass of land,” Kirkpatrick says. “We don't have enough officers we can staff out there.”
“A lot of people say, ‘Why don't you just cut that district in half?' But that's the problem,” she continues. “You can't just cut the geography in half without having the staff to staff it. So that's why we're looking at drones.”
Kirkpatrick explains that before redistricting is considered, the NOPD must grow to 1,200 officers.
“We absolutely have to have 1,200 to stop the fines that we pay the pension system. Once we get to that earmark, then let's look at staffing studies. Let's look at redistricting," Kirkpatrick says. "But it's too early if we're still paying $214,000 a month to the state's pension system. So that's why I'm trying to stop that bleed first. Then we'll go and look at the staffing studies and redistricting.”
While staffing shortages continue to burden the NOPD, one thing Kirkpatrick remains committed to is hiring only those she deems fit to wear the badge.
“Under no condition will I lower any requirements that are necessary to be a New Orleans police officer," Kirkaptrick says. "If you are the best of the best, you're going to be attracted to this team. Elites are always attracted to the hardest and the best teams to get on, and therefore, there will be no lowering of requirements. And that's why we do so well with so few.”