New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick is talking about the department's shortage of commissioned officers.
"That is our biggest challenge," the chief told WWL's Newell Normand. "Right now we have just over 900."
The chief said that is about 300 shy of their present goal of 1,200 officers, and she said she would like to have even more.
"The demands are still the demands of what a 1,200-man department should be, if not a 1,500," she said. "Ten, fifteen years ago, New Orleans was a 1,500-man police department."
The chief said even with the struggle to recruit, she will not lower standards and hire people unqualified to be police officers.
Criminal justice watchdog Raphael Goyeneche of the New Orleans Metro Crime Commission worries the NOPD could be facing a "cliff" of retirements as more officers become fully vested in their pensions.
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