NEW ORLEANS — A final public hearing has been scheduled as the 12-year-old NOPD consent decree appears to be entering the home stretch before a federal judge will decide if the city is ready to enter a two-year wrap-up period.
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan announced she will hold an in-court public hearing on Dec. 17 at 9 a.m. to hear from any community members and other stakeholders who wish to weigh in on the reform measure.
Those who wish to speak at the court hearing are asked to show up early and fill out a speaker’s card, allowing them to speak for up to five minutes.
The formal court hearing follows a series of virtual and in-person hearings held since Morgan’s acceptance in September of a joint motion by the city and U.S. Department of Justice to outline a plan for the so-called “sustainment period.”
If no major red flags are presented, Morgan has set Jan. 8 as the final hearing on the joint motion, signaling that her ruling will be ready on that date.
The federal intervention began when the DOJ sued the city to force improvements inside of a department that had once been riddled with corruption, brutality, civil rights violations, biased policing, and cronyism.
While expected, this step in the long legal process is a moment of triumph for Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, who was hired last year in part to bring the NOPD across the finish line.
The final hearings will mark a dramatic turnaround from only a couple of years ago when the city filed its own combative motion to end wind down the agreement with Cantrell saying, “Enough is enough.”
Kirkpatrick has held out a promise to hold a second line along Poydras Street once the NOPD and city are finally approved to enter the home stretch, a two-year period in which the department must prove it is capable of sustaining its reforms.
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