NOPD vs OPSO, What is the difference?

For years in the City of New Orleans there has been animosity and/or bad blood between the NOPD and the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office. It comes in part from members of the NOPD thinking their superior to all of law enforcement agencies in the area but also from a lack of confidence on the part of the deputies with the OPSO.

This animosity has led to a misconception on the part of the citizens in the Metropolitan New Orleans area. The residents fail to see that the OPSO can take the same enforcement actions that the NOPD can. I hope the below Civics lesson helps everyone to understand the roles of both departments.

First, the New Orleans Police Department is primarily responsible for the patrol and answering calls for service functions in the City of New Orleans. The Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office is primarily responsible for the care, custody, and control on prisoners in the Parish of Orleans. However, the following holds true:

The Constitution of the State of Louisiana states in relevant part, "In each parish a sheriff shall be elected for a term of four years. He shall be the chief law enforcement officer in the parish...". The City of New Orleans' Home Rule Charter dictates that The Superintendent of Police for the City of New Orleans shall be the chief law enforcement officer for the city. Here we have conflicting laws, however, the Home Rule Charter is allowed to prevail without challenge.

I contend that while the NOPD conducts primarily all patrol and call for service response, personnel of the Sheriff's Department are in fact peace officers with the authority and power to make arrests and enforce city and sate laws. This is shown to be true in Louisiana Revised Statute 40:2402(3)(a) which says: ""Peace Officer" means any full-time employee of the state, a municipality, a sheriff, or other public agency, whose permanent duties actually include the making of arrests, the performing of searches and seizures, or the execution of criminal warrants, and is responsible for the prevention or detection of crime or for the enforcement of the penal, traffic, or highway laws of this state, but not including any elected or appointed head of a law enforcement department". Section 2402(3)(b) says: ""Peace Officer" shall also include those sheriff's deputies whose duties include the care, custody, and control of inmates."

With that, I conclude that there is virtu no difference between police officer with the NOPD and the sheriff's deputies with the OPSO, other than their primary roles are different.

To the officers out there, it is time for the you to respect and support your brethren in uniform. To the sheriff's deputies, it's time for you to demand respect, by first respecting yourselves and having confidence in your ability to effectively and efficiently perform your duties as a peace officer!

In re: Mayor & Police Chief's Press Conference

In the press conference by Mayor Landrieu and Supt. Serpas, the Mayor spent entirely too long trying to correct a question asked by one of the journalists. The question was something like, "Chief Serpas, do we have enough officers with the NOPD to address the crime issues.". The Mayor chose to respond by chastising the journalist about getting his facts straight.

News Flash Mr. Mayor, nobody cares about the number of officers per capita. The truth is, we have less officers patrolling the streets of New Orleans than we've ever had. Before you say we have less citizens, I disagree with that as well. In post-Katrina New Orleans, we have more undocumented illegal aliens here than ever. Without 100% proof, I would venture to say that our population is probably equal to or just shy of our population pre-Katrina. Thus, we need more officers.

Let's cut some of those B.S. high-ranking administration officials and hire more foot soldiers!

Just my $.02!

Reorganizing Criminal Justice Agencies

I stated in my very first blog that New Orleans has entirely too many law enforcement agencies to have to request mutual aid from outside the parish. Tell me how you'd feel about having a system of agencies like in New York? All of the different agencies could maintain their leadership, all while answering to one civilian Police Commissioner. This would ensure that all of the involved agencies had and worked towards the same goal. It would also ensure equal respect amongst agencies.

Offer your opinions.

National Guard

Is The National Guard the answer to combatting crime in the City of New Orleans? What are the pros and cons to bringing them in?

In my humble opinion the National Guard may be a nice suggestion but, they are not the answer to address our crime problems. I'll first offer the cons to bringing them in and then the pros.

I stated in response to a comment on my previous blog that with bringing in the National Guard we would face a problem of a different type. The first problem would be the biggest of all, a lack of knowledge of the laws of the state & city; secondly, they lack knowledge of the criminal justice system; thirdly, they lack knowledge of law enforcement protocols; and, they would not be as friendly a force as the community and politicians have forced the NOPD to become.

A large majority of the National Guard are not members of the law enforcement community. Most are civilian business people like the ordinary citizen. They are not as well versed in the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution as your average police officer is. With that lack of knowledge will come illegal searches and seizures that will lead to criminal cases being rejected or overturned on appeal.

Again being a civilian, they aren't necessarily aware of the protocols and policies that govern a police agency. They are not familiar with the completion of police reports after affecting an arrest. History has shown us that using the Guard is like using ordinary citizens, in so far as when they make an arrest, they must relate the information to a police officer who will in turn complete the proper reports and affect the actual arrest, thus tying up unnecessary manpower.

The final con I mentioned was that they would be less friendly. This community has cried for a more friendly police department that gives more warnings and new court dates for various criminal offenses. The National Guard would have to come in and adapt to that mindset and forget about their training for use in times of war. You would undoubtedly have a group of people more aggressive in certain situations than is necessary.

The major pro to having the National Guard in the city is additional manpower on the street. You could deploy them to your hotspots, thus forcing the the criminals to either move or become more brazen about how and when they commit crime.

The statements above are only my opinions and I welcome the thoughts and opinions of others. Please remember that this is not an attack on The National Guard. If put into their element, us law enforcement officer would likewise lack skills and knowledge to consistently perform successfully.

Lack of Leadership in New Orleans

NOLA Crime Blog

Here we are 12 days into 2012 and already in New Orleans, Louisiana, we've seen ten (10) people killed.  How do we address recurring crime in this city?  Do we blame the police?  Do we blame the city's leadership?  Do we blame the ordinary citizen?  Do we blame society?  The answer to all of those questions is an emphatic HELL YES!  Below I will outline why we have to blame everyone as a whole for the state of our city.

Let's start with blaming the police since that comes so easy for all of us.  I fault the police department for failing to grow a united pair of cohunas to stand up to the community and it's leadership, and say we're taking our streets back.  Currently the morale in the police department is the lowest I've ever seen it.  I would venture to say it's at an all time low.  You have police officers that come to work for 8.35 hours every day who refuse to stop suspicious people, vehicles, etc.  Why you ask?  It's because when something happens they aren't supported; by their leadership or the community.  When are we going to allow the police to be the police?

I'll move on to the City's Leadership, specifically Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu and the police chief, Dr. Ronal W. Serpas.  Mayor Landrieu is adamantly opposed to doing anything that "could" negatively affect him or his political identity directly, unless of course it involves the replacement of Serpas.  It should be obvious to everyone that this guy is out for himself.  Chief Serpas on the other hand is only worried about being published in some journal regarding the problems in New Orleans.  To be an effective leader, you must first and foremost be a great motivator of people.  Currently the good Dr is not doing anything to motivate his people.  You can't expect your personnel to work and bust their asses for you when you and the and the mayor have both publicly admonished the entire department for your political benefit.  How can you out of one side of your mouth ask the officers to go out and be proactive and out of the other side call the entire department criminals and thugs?  This is completely unacceptable and more importantly discouraging.  I can't forget that the Chief publicly berates his commanders on a weekly basis about things occurring within their areas of responsibility.  Again, good job Chief!  That'll make them want to work hard for you.  Oh, not to forget the "Mission One" assignments, where administrative staff people work the streets and answer calls for service once a month.  While this may have been a nice idea, it wasn't thought out very thoroughly, nor was it executed well.  You send these administrative staff people out and tell them to answer CFS in unmarked, il-equipped vehicles and tell them that reports must be entered into the Electronic Police Reporting system, but also tell them that they are bound by time limits on completing the reports.  This is ludicrous.  How do you expect them to complete paperwork when they don't have the proper equipment to do so?  Lastly for the Chief & Mayor, for 10 days straight there were special events in the city and officers were not allowed to make any overtime.  You changed their shifts and hours to make it appear that tourists were safe.  News flash, any tourist that was still in the city Tuesday night received a large dose of reality.  Oh Mr. Mayor, real nice touch to send an email to city employees the night of Wednesday, January 11, 2012 to tell them to support the Saints, when the community didn't hear from you about the 8 people shot the same day.  Real nice leadership!!

The community & society play just as important a role in this mess as the other parties mentioned above.  Until the members of this community step up and say we're not accepting this anymore, we'll continue to have murder after murder.  I've said before that the leaders in the clergy should be marching for every murder, not murder number 150 or for the so-called innocents.  Where were they at murder number 1 of 2012?  The community first and foremost needs to support its police department and other public service employees.  Finally we have to teach and discipline our children.  The children of today are tomorrow's future and with more and more of them committing more violent crime, our future looks very sorry!

Finally one last bit of advice for the police department's leadership.  Stop thinking and brainwashing the officers to believe that they are superior to other departments.  With the crime problems in this city, we should be partnering with our brethren in uniform right here in the city, not those from across parish lines.  In the city alone, we have several law enforcement agencies, i.e.  NOPD, Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office, Orleans Levee District Police, Port of New Orleans Harbor Police, Crescent City Connection Police, Delgado, Loyola, SUNO, Tulane, Dillard, UNO campus police departments.  Start utilizing your resources and allow these agencies to assist in combating crime in this damn city.  Problem is, NOPD degrades anybody that doesn't wear a Star & Crescent badge!  News flash, if you are involved in a life or death situation, you wouldn't care if the dog catcher assisted you, give respect to the other agencies and they'll begin to respect you!

Just my $.02 as a concerned citizen and law enforcement officer in the City of New Orleans!!!