NEW ORLEANS — While remarks from recently hired New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick continue to garner national attention regarding the city's deteriorating police headquarters, WWL Louisiana has proof problems have plagued HQ for decades.
Back in 1993, then-reporter Len Cannon took a look at ongoing issues such as broken air conditioning that persists to this day.
"There's no way to open the windows," Assistant Superintendent Antoine Sachs told WWL at the time. "All the windows on this building are sealed. And so there's no air circulation whatsoever. And it's, you know, I think it aggravates a lot of people's allergies."
According to NOPD officials, rats, roaches, broken elevators and more AC outages are making working conditions at the decaying Broad Street building unbearable.
"The rats eating our marijuana, they're all high," claimed Kirkpatrick regarding the rodents consuming drugs from the NOPD's evidence room.
She also said staff sometimes finds rat droppings on their desks.
"When we say we value our employees, you can't say that and at the same time allow people to work in conditions that are not acceptable," explained Kirkpatrick.
Conditions were so unbearable in 1993, employees were allowed to wear shorts and work altered shifts to avoid late afternoon summer heat.
At the time, no one knew when the problems would be fixed.
Not even then-Police Chief Arnesta Taylor.
"I would like to be Moses," Chief Taylor told WWL. "Then I could part the seas and have a miracle happen so that we could get it right away."
Despite a concerted effort by NOPD leaders to relocate headquarters to a new building on Poydras Street, employees are seemingly still waiting for a miracle.
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