NEW ORLEANS — City councilman Oliver Thomas is asking why the Poydras Street office location was picked as the potential new site for NOPD Headquarters. The councilman wrote a letter to the city and NOPD Chief Anne Kirkpatrick saying he won't be moving forward until he has his questions answered.
On Monday, Chief Anne Kirkpatrick made headlines when she said at the city's crime committee meeting, "The rats eating our marijuana, they're all high."
Kirkpatrick contends the NOPD Headquarters is plagued with issues like rats, roaches, no AC and broken elevators, so the city wants them in a new building.
Thomas is asking why the rush. Issues inside the Broad Street building haven't just suddenly started, as back In 1993 the building's air conditioning went out.
"I am 1000% for a new, temporary facility and a new permanent facility in the right place."
The proposed plan is to move the headquarters to empty offices on Poydras Street, opposite the Superdome. As the chairman of the city's crime committee, Thomas wants to know how accessible it'll be to the public, and were we'll all park.
"Why haven't we looked at other buildings in the community?" he asked. "Man, think what this would mean to New Orleans East or the Upper Ninth Ward, Central City or parts of Gentilly or Algiers."
He's asking why abandoned buildings aren't being put back into circulation.
The City's Chief Administrative Officer, Gilbert Montano says revamping old buildings takes time. "These particular floors were vacant so we had complete availability, move in ready."
Montano says there's plenty of parking downtown, it's just about negotiating a price. To answer Councilman Thomas's question, of why the rush, Montano said, "Frankly the haste for this was the continual erosion of that existing building certainly in anticipation before summer."
Pre-Katrina, all of the NOPD's evidence was held at the headquarters on Broad Street, but a lot of that evidence was destroyed during the storm. Since then, the department stores all their evidence at a facility on Magnolia Street, so when the Superintendent says rats are eating evidence, it's not evidence held at headquarters, it's evidence held at the Magnolia Street facility.
On one side of that building, graffiti sits on the brick wall, a picture of a giant rat that resembles what lurks inside. Former NOPD Officer Kenney Guidry worked out of the Magnolia St. building for eight years, he said, "Once I turned on the light you would see not mice, but actual rats scrambling in the dark to get out of my office."
"I have seen firsthand some of the rats after they have ingested some of these drugs and you can tell they have ingested them because they will wobble and weave and you could tell they were under some sort of narcotic."
Guidry said rats eating drugs in evidence can ultimately jeopardize cases, "If you have animals going inside the bags and eating the evidence, that can case problem later on for prosecution."
Before anyone moves, the lease has to be approved by full council.
The city says evidence held at the Magnolia Street facility will not be moved into the new proposed building on Poydras Street. Montano said the city is looking at other locations for a possibly new evidence facility.
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