NEW ORLEANS — During a recruitment event on Wednesday interim police chief Michelle Woodfork made it clear that she was a "shoo-in" for the permanent position, and that rebuilding the New Orleans police force was her top priority.
"My overall expectations is to get a really high number of applicants for both the civilian staff and also the commissioned officers," Woodfork said regarding her plan to rebuild a force now facing historic lows. "Last year we only hired 28 recruit applicants, this year we are above 60, and we still have another class coming in November.
"Hopefully by the end of the year, we'd have hired at least 90 police recruits."
Woodfork stressed that while recruitment has taken a positive swing, it will take time for those new officers to complete training and hit the streets.
"It's six months of training, and also the field training program they have to go through once they are finished at the academy," she explained. "So it actually takes six months to put boots on the ground."
The two-day recruitment event is being hosted daily at Baptist Theological Seminary on Gentilly Boulevard from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.
"We have done a really great job, and we are not stopping," proclaimed Woodfork. "We have our foot on the gas with this."
Woodfork joins former Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, Thedrick Andres Sr., and David Franklin – a former chief of staff for the Albuquerque Police – as finalists for the permanent role she has served as interim since superintendent Shaun Ferguson resigned in December.
"I have proven that I am the person for the job," explained Woodfork. "I have the community support. I have so much support from the men and women on the New Orleans Police Department, and I am doing the job. I didn't just step in and put in hold the place. I came in and I went to work, and it's paying dividends."
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