NEW ORLEANS — NOPD staffing shortages are requiring some victims of property crimes to wait as 911 dispatchers prioritize people crimes, interim Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said Monday.
Kirkpatrick, who is expected to be confirmed as the full time NOPD chief this week, appeared on the Morning News to discuss several topics.
She was questioned about response times when victims call 911 and said that the severely short-staffed NOPD has to “triage” responses based on priority.
“When you have low staffing, and you have the same number of calls for service coming into 911, then the dispatchers have to triage. They're always going to dispatch the very fewest officers. Because we're so low in staff they're going to go to people crimes before they go to property crime. It is a function of triage. And so, the property crimes are put into a queue while the officers are responding to people crimes. That's why they're waiting,” Kirkpatrick explained.
Kirkpatrick said that the norm for the NOPD in previous years was between 1,200 and 1,700 officers and that now they are operating with about 900.
“You cannot police the same when you’re at a 900-man department as opposed to a 1,200-officer department.”
Kirkpatrick plans to do some ride-alongs on some shifts to get a feel for the city and the department. She also plans to increase recruitment.
“We are hiring, so we want to get the word out about that.”
Kirkpatrick still needs to win the approval of the New Orleans City Council in order to cement her as permanent police chief.
Last week she was interviewed by city council members for several hours where she laid out her plan for the city and the department.
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