The NOPD Consent Decree


Charbonnet and the NOPD Consent Decree



One of the most serious of the 18 candidates for mayor, Judge Desiree Charbonnet (Ret.) issued a "Comprehensive Crime Plan" on July 17, 2017.  By doing so, Charbonnet sent a serious message to citizens about the kind of mayor she would be if elected.  There is much in her plan that would please the FORWARD NEW ORLEANS coalition, especially regarding public safety as a priority.  The coalition argues that New Orleans needs a "top-tier police superintendent."  Charbonnet avoids the ambiguity of the wording "top-tier" and suggests, in one immediate action item that we need to "conduct a nationwide search for the best Police Chief…We must have the best available Police Chief…and give her or him the latitude to run the department without daily interference and micromanaging from the mayor's office."  Question: Is Michael S. Harrison, who has headed NOPD since October 14, 2014, who has much experience with vice, narcotics, gang enforcement, and criminal intelligence, and who in my mind is a man of integrity, not the best available Police Chief?  I invite Judge Charbonnet to provide an answer.



There is much in Charbonnet's comprehensive crime plan that is transparent and praiseworthy, particularly the five Rs (recruit, reorganize, redeploy, retain, response) to make NOPD more effective.  But one transparent suggestion is less transparent than it seems at first glance.  Charbonnet want to make NOPD more effective without increasing taxes.  Thus, she suggests that the city "seek permission from the Federal Court to modify the NOPD Consent Decree in order to reduce the amount of money paid by the city to monitor the provisions of the consent decree.  To be direct, the monitor costs too much money, and the  functions can and should be done for less."



 After reading all 71 pages of the monitor's May 5, 2017 report on NOPD uses of force, I'm not certain the functions can be done for less;  if the functions should be done for less, I'm not convinced that modifying the consent decree is a wise move.  Let us recall what Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, the 84th U. S.  Attorney General, wrote in 2008 about consent decrees.  "One of the most dangerous, and rarely discussed, exercises of raw power is the issuance of expansive court decrees.  Consent decrees have a profound effect on our legal system as they constitute an end run around the democratic process." [[ See "Alabama Policy Institute. (208, 06 24). API Research Consent Decrees at http://www. alabamapolicy.org/WP-consent/uploads/ API-Research-Consent-Decrees.pdf  ]] Mr. Sessions would like to minimize use of consent decrees in 2017 and maximize "stop, question, and frisk" policies to stem the rising tide of crime in urban America, and he would get much support from Senator John Kennedy.  Question:  Has Judge Charbonnet opened a can of worms that is labeled "Politics make strange bedfellows"?  I invite her to provide an answer.



Read the NOPD Consent Decree at http://www.nola.gov.  It is one of the most robust, comprehensive police consent decrees in the United States of America.  It has done some good.  There also seems to be some evidence that citizens in New Orleans are developing more positive views of NOPD since the decree has been in force.  I suggest that voters in New Orleans try to contextualize very carefully  the various public safety plans the candidates for mayor will offer.



Jerry W. Ward, Jr.            New Orleans     July 18, 2017
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