NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said on Wednesday that the NOPD is now in compliance with a more than decade-long reform agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.
Last summer she filed court documents to terminate the consent decree.
The document spelled out what the department needed to do to correct an alleged pattern of civil rights violations.
The Cantrell administration notified the federal judge overseeing the reforms, that the city would not participate in Wednesday’s public meeting with federal monitors.
Judge Susie Morgan called the meeting to get a progress report on NOPD recruitment and enhanced police response services.
“I made it very clear that this administration will not participate in meetings and public meetings that are outside of the scope of the consent decree,” Cantrell said. “This is very important because this is taxing, I would say to my administration.”
The mayor added that in the future the city will focus on the two areas where monitors say NOPD still needs work: stop, search and arrest; and biased free policing.
NOPD Interim Superintendent Michelle Woodfork told WWL radio’s Newell Normand, the department is now pivoting to focus only on compliance issues.
“I ask that we only report on consent decree matters that have to do with where we are in compliance and where we’re not, so we can do what we need to do to move on to the next phase,” Woodfork said.
In her order canceling the event, Judge Morgan expressed disappointment in the city’s boycott of the public hearing that was to be held at Loyola University.
"Public transparency and accountability are core elements of the Consent Decree that have been recognized and embraced by the Court, the Monitor, the Department of Justice, and the City," she wrote.
In response Cantrell said, “I’m really urging biased-free monitoring at this point.”
The mayor said she did not believe the city’s refusal to participate in the public meeting will hurt the NOPD’s chances of moving on to the self-monitoring phase of the consent decree. That’s the next step in the city getting out from under the federal agreement.
In the meantime, Judge Morgan assured the public that open hearings and meetings will continue.
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