NEW ORLEANS — The search for the next permanent NOPD Superintendent is underway. The International Association of Chiefs of Police, or IACP, is conducting the search but they’re not doing it alone.
The group, which was contracted by the city for $90,000 is asking for community input as they look nationwide for the next person to lead the force. Monday, the IACP heard from the community for the first time.
“We need a police chief who could motivate the officers we have today to improve the hiring,” one meeting attendee said.
The meeting didn’t have a huge turnout, but many who did show up had strong opinions about their next police chief.
“I want to see someone who’s community-focused, someone who’s willing to come out and talk and be a part of the community not just on bad evenings but during the day when kids need to be read to in schools or there’s engagement opportunities to meet the community,” Todd Taylor, a longtime New Orleans resident said.
Many say they want someone who truly understands the community, noting it’s a challenge to work in New Orleans and would be hard to get the crime under control.
“I think searching for someone outside the city that don’t truly understand this city I truly don’t think it’s going to do any good,” resident Claudia Batte says. “It’s not going to do any good for people that come in from somewhere else that don’t know us.”
Residents who showed up to the Treme Community Center Monday, strongly believe whoever is tasked with leading the department will be just one person, it what they hope to be an all-encompassing, community approach to lowering crime.
“You can’t just bring one person here and think everything’s going to change. That’s not going to happen the community and the people in the community and the police chief and everyone need to get together to see what we can do. We have to work as a village,” Batte says.
“It’s not a policing issue, crime is an education issue, it’s a hunger issue, it’s a substance abuse issue, it’s a mental health issue. So hopefully with our new police chief, our new sheriff with the mental health opportunities with our coroner, coroner is responsible for mental health, maybe all of them coming together to figure out a plan that makes and spreads out the opportunity to grow this city the right way,” Taylor said.
Many say Michelle Woodfork, who has been serving as Interim Poice Chief since December, is doing a great job. Woodfork has said in the past she would like to be considered as a permanent candidate.
City Councilmember Freddie King, who attended Monday night’s meeting, says Woodfork has been doing a great job but she’s not the only one they should be considering.
“What I do know is that the chief is doing a good job she’s very transparent from what I can tell she’s honest that’s what we’re looking for she’s accessible.
So I don’t think she has the job but I think she’s going in the right direction, but we’re doing a national search. We want public input, the council has mentioned it’s going to have more input on deciding who the police chief is going to be. It’s going to be very important I'm looking forward to the process,” King said.
He adds, we’re at a crossroads right now in our city in terms of crime and wants to make sure they pick the best person possible for the job, and that includes taking the residents' concerns into consideration.
“We want to get the balance between being tough on crime but also being reasonable with the constituents and the people of this city we want to see crime go down, but in the right way. We don’t want to get back in the situation that has us back in a consent decree. That’s what we want to avoid,” King said.
The IACP will be holding meetings through Thursday, throughout the community to get more input from residents.
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