New Orleans, US Justice Department move to end police department’s consent decree
NEW ORLEANS– New Orleans and the U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion in federal court Friday seeking steps to end long-standing conflicts federal supervision of the city police.
The city and federal government had agreed to a New Orleans police reform pact, known as a consent decree, in 2013, two years after a Justice Department investigation. evidence found of racial bias and misconduct by the city’s police force.
The Department of Justice has done that found in 2011 that New Orleans police used deadly force without justification, repeatedly made unconstitutional arrests, and engaged in racial profiling. Officer-involved shootings and deaths in custody were “inadequately or not investigated at all” The Justice Department said.
If U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan of the Eastern District of Louisiana approves the motion, the city and its police department will remain under federal supervision for two more years to demonstrate compliance with the reform measures issued during the consent decree before it is cancelled.
“Today’s filing recognizes the significant progress the City of New Orleans and the New Orleans Police Department have made to ensure constitutional and fair policing,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a statement declaration.
Morgan said in a statement that she plans to hold a public hearing within the next 45 days so community members can weigh in on whether they believe the city and its police department should be allowed to phase out federal oversight.
Colin Reingold, legal director of the Promise of Justice Initiative, welcomed citizen input.
“The damage done by NOPD is not damage of the past, and the need for police accountability in Louisiana remains as great as it has ever been,” he said in a statement. “NOPD is a long way from restoring trust in the communities we represent. Federal oversight of NOPD practices, while not a panacea, has been and remains an important check on abuse of power, and NOPD’s efforts to escape that oversight suggest that the lessons of the consent decree have not sunk in and have not led to long-lasting reforms. The discussion about moving away from the consent decree should be had with the community before it goes to court.”
The city’s independent police monitor, Stella Cziment, said in a statement that the voices of city residents must be “heard, considered and weighed” in determining whether the consent decree process will enter its final stages. But she noted that the consent decree was always intended to be phased out over time.
“The reforms that were put in place, the officials who embraced those reforms, and the community that advocated for the reforms are not going anywhere,” she said. “The work continues.”
The Office of the Independent Police Monitor is an independent civilian police oversight agency created by voters in a 2008 charter referendum. Its mission is to hold police accountable and ensure that they enforce their own rules, policies and city, state and federal laws follow.
Relations between Morgan and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell have been tensewith the mayor saying the consent decree was a drain on the city’s resources. Complying with federal controls has cost the city millions.
The mayor’s office said it would release a statement on the filing later Friday.
Morgan said she “applauds the progress” the New Orleans Police Department has made so far. She added that the court would take “swift and decisive action” if the city and police department did not follow ongoing reform efforts.
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Jack Brook is a staff member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.