Police Association of New Orleans leader Michael Glasser likes the pick of former Oakland police chief Anne Kirkpatrick to take over running the New Orleans Police Department. Glasser said he was surprised but also pleased when Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced her pick.
Glasser told WWL's Newell Normand that while promoting from within is good, it is also good to get a fresh take on things.
"While that's not necessarily a problem, it also limits the ideas that we're going to work with and the management structure that needs to be put in place," Glasser said of hiring a new chief from within the department. "I think it's encouraging that we have somebody that has experience in other places."
Glasser said it will be critical for Kirkpatrick, assuming she is confirmed by the New Orleans City Council, to hit the ground running with plans for reducing crime while dealing with a department that is barely above half of its budgeted number of officers.
"I think everyone is looking forward to a plan, whether it's from Anne Kirkpatrick or anyone else, but they're looking for some stability in a plan going forward, and something that they can get behind and feel confident in," said Glasser. He said that plan needs to accept that NOPD is operating at reduced numbers.
"We need an operational plan that will take into account the reality of an eight- or nine-hundred officer department, and we haven't had that yet," Glasser said. "So I think we need that desperately, and I think the officers that are here are waiting to see that."
