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!
Good lesson and you are right. But it puzzles me why some of the new OPCSO Deputies are ex NOPD officers! The same officers who believed they were superior when they were NOPD. It seems to me that someone from within the OPCSO was just as if not more qualified to move up in rank because they deserved it more than an outsider. Come on Gusman you must believe that EX-NOPD officers are superior to the people who have been loyal to the OPCSO. It must be true if Melvin Howard is apart of your new rank structure. Howard was garbage at NOPD and he still is and he always believed the OPCSO were only jailers and had no authority in New Orleans on criminal matters (ask the OPCSO motor cycle division to reminisce). I bet he changed that tune now! So Deputies demand your respect but your Sheriff has to do the same and believe in the people who dedicated their lives to the OPCSO!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, thanks for replying. There are a numberr of things Sheriff Gusman has done, has allowed to happen, or is doing that causes everyone to question his ability to perform his job, as well as his sanity. It's become quite apparent that the Sheriff has lost his marbles. We can only pray that things will change for the better in the near future.
ReplyDeleteThe original post appears to be "Plagiarism" from academic papers presented by an OPSO Court Deputy with a Bachelors and Masters Degrees from UNO.
ReplyDeleteThe factual basis of the statement is accurate but incomplete. In order to further the original argument you should speak with that deputy or at least read all of his academic work.
You should also give that deputy credit for his work rather than plagiarize his work
In today's society the problem is The Orleans parish sheriff's department hiring issues. They are hiring bodies not experience. Opso is 75% women and most of the people that they hired just want the clout of being an officer. Majority of the deputies go through the academy and once they finish they don't remember anything that they learned which makes them inferior to nopd. sheriff department deputies doesn't use what they've learned on a daily basis they tend to take it for granted. Nopd uses what they've learned in the academy every day. But again opso only hires bodies and not experience. Plus nopd looks down on opso because of the age ranges also. They hire young men and women from the ages of 21 to 26 mostly your veteran deputies have all resigned if they are not in a higher position than a regular deputy.
ReplyDeleteI see English is one of those universally forgotten skills. XD
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