A U.S. Department of Justice report has found that the New Orleans Police Department has been plagued by incidents of excessive force, unjustified arrests, searches, and stops, and racial and gender discrimination in the past two years.
“Our investigation has shown that the problems facing the NOPD are serious, wide ranging, systemic, and deeply rooted in the culture of the department,” DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez announced at a press conference on Thursday.
The investigation—which started last year upon Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s request—was an unprecedented examination of the police department’s recruiting, training, supervision, and interrogation practices.
The report said that the New Orleans Police Department often stressed quantity of arrests instead of quality, used excessive force as retaliation, had untrained dogs, and failed to properly train officers on alternatives to force.
It said the police department encouraged under-investigating sexual assaults and domestic violence against women, and found a systemic failure to provide effective policing services to people who did not know English well.
“We found that the department is unable to meaningfully police in Spanish and Vietnamese speaking communities, and unable to communicate meaningfully with potential witnesses,” said Perez. “We found delays and denials of service for these communities, and a practice of allowing subjects to interpret for victims of domestic violence.”
The report identified a “troubling” racial disparity in use of force. In all 27 instances in which police intentionally shot people between January 2009 and May 2010, the subjects were blacks. During the same period, a random sample of 96 Resisting Arrest/Use of Force reports showed that 84 percent involved black subjects.
The DOJ noted that the police department’s problems are longstanding ones that did not start with Hurricane Katrina, which has put the city in a reconstruction phase since 2005.
“The steps we have laid out are the beginning, but the DOJ will not solve all of our problems,” Landrieu said. “This begins and ends with us. Just as we will be the one to rebuild our city, we will be the ones to reform this department and win back our streets once and for all.”
“Our investigation has shown that the problems facing the NOPD are serious, wide ranging, systemic, and deeply rooted in the culture of the department,” DOJ’s Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez announced at a press conference on Thursday.
The investigation—which started last year upon Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s request—was an unprecedented examination of the police department’s recruiting, training, supervision, and interrogation practices.
The report said that the New Orleans Police Department often stressed quantity of arrests instead of quality, used excessive force as retaliation, had untrained dogs, and failed to properly train officers on alternatives to force.
It said the police department encouraged under-investigating sexual assaults and domestic violence against women, and found a systemic failure to provide effective policing services to people who did not know English well.
“We found that the department is unable to meaningfully police in Spanish and Vietnamese speaking communities, and unable to communicate meaningfully with potential witnesses,” said Perez. “We found delays and denials of service for these communities, and a practice of allowing subjects to interpret for victims of domestic violence.”
The report identified a “troubling” racial disparity in use of force. In all 27 instances in which police intentionally shot people between January 2009 and May 2010, the subjects were blacks. During the same period, a random sample of 96 Resisting Arrest/Use of Force reports showed that 84 percent involved black subjects.
The DOJ noted that the police department’s problems are longstanding ones that did not start with Hurricane Katrina, which has put the city in a reconstruction phase since 2005.
“The steps we have laid out are the beginning, but the DOJ will not solve all of our problems,” Landrieu said. “This begins and ends with us. Just as we will be the one to rebuild our city, we will be the ones to reform this department and win back our streets once and for all.”
