Now that the NOPD consent decree is no more, who gets involved if there's a problem? The public will need to get used to trusting the NOPD to handle things on its own.
The consent decree began under former New Orleans Police Chief Ronal Serpas. He said the NOPD had good policies when he took command -- the problem was a lack of accountable supervision.
"No matter how good your policies are, unless the sergeants and lieutenants and captains are doing work that they're paid to do, compensated to do, then these types of problems can reoccur," said Serpas. "That's not going to be the case, let's hope."
So now it's on the NOPD to keep doing what they've been doing, and on elected leaders and the people who put them there to hold accountable anyone who violates these policies.
"Council members and mayors are elected all over the country to be the citizens' representatives to oversee the police department, the fire department, the parks and recreation department, so the question of accountability also rests with those people who are elected to oversee the department within the government structure," Serpas said.
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