The short staffing at the New Orleans Police Department has been at crisis level for some time now. The city has fallen so behind in hiring and retaining new officers, it could take 10 years before the NOPD has adequate staffing. There’s only 15 cadets in the latest group of NOPD recruits! Low retention and high turnover in the department means there are not enough officers to fulfill the demand of off-duty details. I talked to Rafael Goyeneche with the Metropolitan Crime Commission about it.
When we talk about 15 cadets in the class, that’s typically about half of normal, right?
This class should at least be 30 cadets and the NOPD needs to hire at least a hundred cadets. Those 15 cadets are included in the numbers of police officers that the city reports. They are anywhere from six to ten months into the academy. Every veteran officer who leaves is not being replaced. Also, the Louisiana State Police is scheduled to have a lateral transfer academy later this year, and I expect a number of NOPD officers to apply to transfer over.
Do you get a sense of exigency on the lack of police staffing from the city?
Mayor LaToya Cantrell basically had her head in the sand for the last two years and it wasn't until January of this year that she came up with a pay plan. That plan is stuck in the Civil Services Office to determine if it is lawful.The good news is that she finally recognized that she needed to pay police officers more money to aid with recruitment and retention. The prior city council did nothing, but at least there’s acknowledgement by the mayor and the current council that something has to be done to change the dynamics of recruitment and retention. The question is how long it's going to take them to find a viable path forward.
Off duty details being worked by officers have been limited over the last several years as a result of the consent decree. The city is asking the judge monitoring the consent decree to increase off duty details hours up to 32, explaining that it allows officers to combat financial hardship as a result of inflation and boost morale. Isn’t this ironic this recommendation is on the heels of a series of investigations relative to the manipulation and abuse of working off duty details?
The consent decree took responsibility for details away from the police department and created the Office of Police Secondary Employment. Any time you want to hire an officer to do security work, you call that office. The newer officers don't want work details to the extent that the more senior officers used to, so the office is having a tough time fulfilling requests from the private sector for officers… while the city is trying to increase the number of off duty hours an officer can work, will the city increase the amount of time officers can work in a law enforcement capacity? You can't just add more hours to an officer's workday and expect his performance to be the same. I'm worried that we may be putting the priority for details above the safety of the officers and the safety of the public.
