DOJ Urges Court to End Federal Oversight of New Orleans Police Reforms

Police officers work at the scene of a shooting that occurred during the Krewe of Bacchus parade in New Orleans on Feb. 19, 2023. Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the City of New Orleans filed a motion in federal court on Sept. 27 seeking to begin the process of ending federal oversight of the city’s police department.

In a memorandum in support of the joint motion, attorneys for the city and the DOJ asked the court to find the former has “sufficiently complied” with a consent decree agreed upon in 2013 by the city and federal government to reform the police.

They further asked that the court allow the city to enter into a two-year “sustainment period,” during which, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) must prove it can keep up the various reforms implemented under the 2013 agreement.

The consent decree was signed in the wake of a DOJ investigation two years prior that found evidence of misconduct among the city’s police force.

At the time, the DOJ said it found the city’s police force engaged in patterns of misconduct that violated federal law, including using excessive force, conducting unconstitutional stops, searches, and seizures, racial profiling, and using other discriminatory practices.

The department said its probe also found the NOPD systematically failed to investigate sexual assaults and domestic violence and that law enforcement officials failed to provide effective policing services to people with limited English proficiency.

In its motion filed with the court, the DOJ said NOPD has made notable progress in achieving compliance with the consent decree, including reforms that go beyond the requirements of the decree, such as improving response times to calls and adding new investigators to help reduce individual caseloads in cases involving sexual violence.

Use of force among the city’s police has also declined by 47 percent from 2015 to 2023, it said, while NOPD’s internal audit in 2023 found an overall 95.4 percent rate of compliance with the stop, search, and arrest requirements of the consent decree.

Additionally, NOPD has developed a Mobile Crisis Intervention Unit to help respond to incidents involving people in crisis, according to the filing with the court.

‘Significant Progress’ DOJ Says

The DOJ and city also noted in its joint filing with the court that the two-year sustainment plan includes safeguards that will put the sustainment period on hold or cancel it completely if the police force fails to maintain compliance.

If the city successfully keeps up the reforms for the next two years, it will be released from its federal consent decree, the filing states.

U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan of the Eastern District of Louisiana will need to sign off on the joint motion and proposed plan.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division welcomed the motion and said it recognizes the “significant progress” the City of New Orleans and the New Orleans Police Department have made to ensure constitutional and fair policing.

“We look forward to continuing to work with NOPD, the City, and the Court Monitor to achieve full and enduring compliance with the consent decree, an outcome that helps strengthen public safety and enhance police-community relations,” Clarke said in a statement.

New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the motion marks the “culmination of years of hard work and progress.”

“We have arrived at a point where the NOPD can confidently move into the sustainment phase of the consent decree,” Kirkpatrick said, while touting the tireless work of the police force to “build a department that the people of New Orleans can trust and be proud of.”

The superintendent added that the city’s police force remains committed to continuing its efforts to deliver a “constitutionally based police department for a world-class city.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.