Three weeks after graduating their latest academy class, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick says staffing remains the department's biggest challenge. And finding qualified recruits can sometimes be a struggle.
You have to be at least 20 to join NOPD, and this day and age, Chief Kirkpatrick says a surprising amount of applicants come lacking a skill most older adults picked up as teenagers.
"It's an appreciable number, let me put it that way, have never driven a car. They didn't even have a driver's license," the chief told WWL's Newell Normand. "I'm not kidding and they come to the police department and their parents drove them here to apply."
Kirkpatrick said despite the city's need for more officers, she will not lower the standards to become one of the Crescent City's finest.
A New Orleans city council online dashboard shows 918 officers as of April 12. Kirkpatrick has said she wants a force of 1,200.
