

Landrieu bourbon st. shooting Bourbon Street shooting
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, left, and Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas are accused of mismanaging the NOPD by the president of a local police union. (Chris Granger, | The Times-Picayune)


NOPD Capt. Michael Glasser, president of PANO (Police Association of New Orleans) accused the city officials of so mismanaging the local police department they were fostering "a slow Katrina" upon the city. Glasser has been a frequent critic of the current city and police administrations, but he held little back in an open letter to PANO members.

Complete text of the letter follows:

"While listening to the Mayor's press conference, I heard several issues with which I am compelled to make comment.

"First, I'd like to state clearly, that the responsibility for the Bourbon Street shootings rests solely with the perpetrators. And it should be understood that even if officers were standing several feet away, there are no guarantees that such an incident couldn't or wouldn't happen anyway ... but it is highly unlikely. Make no mistake; this was an incident of mass casualty.

"The Mayor correctly points out that shooting violence is a national pandemic; however, there are caveats to those comparisons. The Mayor described and compared several shooting incidents in other American cities. I don't know in what areas of those respective cities those shootings took place, but I'll bet the New York City shooting wasn't in Times Square, and that there weren't mass shootings on Beale Street in Memphis. Those areas, and popular tourist areas like them, are typically heavily protected and patrolled, unlike the New Orleans Vieux Carre.

"And while the city administration throws out seemingly large numbers of officers on duty in the 8th District, remember that the 8th District runs from Calliope way down by the Convention Center in the Warehouse District and the CBD, and extends well past the lower Quarter into the Marigny and Frenchmen Street to Elysian Fields Avenue. Spread those numbers out and see how many were really on duty and assigned on and around Bourbon Street itself.

(Editor's note: Serpas has said 27 officers were on duty in the 8th District at the time of last Sunday's 2:45 a.m. shootings, including nine on Bourbon Street.)

"The men and women of the 8th District do a remarkable job with what they have, which is less every week. In fact, the entire department loses, on the average, three cops a week, every week. And while the 8th District struggles with its staffing shortages as it contends with increasingly larger crowds, encouraged by the city administration looking to boost the city's economy, the other districts and its citizens suffer as well. Plagued with absurdly long response times to calls for service and as little as one or two patrol officers operating in a district, each week the problem worsens. And the citizens are less protected and the officers' safety is increasingly diminished.

"And while responsibility for the shooting rests with the perpetrators, the fact is, we have allowed police presence to degrade to a point where criminals are comfortable carrying and using high capacity weapons in areas which should be amongst the safest. That is our fault. And by "our," I mean our administration.

"Four years ago, the Mayor stood at Gallier Hall and announced the appointment of the "Drew Brees of Policing" as our Superintendent. The Superintendent then put forth and imposed strategies and plans and realignment of resources, picking the "best and brightest" to lead and ignoring the Civil Service safeguards which included competitive testing and vetting. As a result, two years ago the Police Association of New Orleans informed the sitting City Council that these strategies and plans were counterproductive, that crime was rising. Further, these strategies were creating a morale issue which was driving an unrelenting and catastrophic attrition.

"We implored the City Council to step in. They did not. The Mayor claimed it was a handful of disgruntled officers and not the opinion of the general rank and file of the NOPD. A legitimate survey by Tulane University staff proved that to be wrong, but the Mayor remained in denial. And here we are, two years later, and regrettably as predicted, 500 officers short, and losing one officer every 60 hours. They had four years to reform the NOPD and it's been reformed, into a faltering organization that the Mayor concedes can no longer effectively police its own city.

"The Mayor's initial answer? To ask the federal government to investigate the NOPD and encourage a Consent Decree to "reform" the NOPD, which he described as the amongst the worst police departments in the nation. Proving to be an incredibly costly event that he apparently underestimated, the Mayor subsequently implored the federal court to withdraw the Consent Decree. Too Late. It was done. A $55 million price tag and, what was worse, a paid detail reform component which has caused event planners and promoters to question the ability of the NOPD to provide safety and security for their events and which jeopardize the events themselves.

The detail reform plan is failing and now has a host of reforms that are being proposed by the City Council, by the city-created and hopelessly flawed OPSE (Office of Police Secondary Employment), and the police labor groups. Ironically, most of the new proposed amendments return the paid detail system to something resembling what it was to begin with. The allegations of corruption seem to have been lost in the quest to salvage the faltering detail system and the events which drive our economy.

"And the result? Significantly fewer paid details for officers, crippling their income opportunities. Less officers on the streets of New Orleans paid for not by tax dollars but by event and business proprietors (like on Bourbon Street, for example). And fueling the increased attrition of NOPD officers to other local area law enforcement agencies.

"Those agencies are getting substantial raises. For example, the state police just got a 40 percent salary increase, and have much less restrictive paid-detail policies. So, after asking for a $55 million Consent Decree from the federal government, the Mayor now wants the federal dollars back to assist in funding local policing. What?

"Now, some of the changes required by the Consent Decree were unquestionably necessary, but they did not require a hideously expensive Consent Decree to affect them. After all, we had the best police chief in the nation, remember?

"But as I listen to the Mayor now beg for help, I'm confused as to how he expects this to be the answer. He vowed to hire 150 new officers this year. As we pass the mid-year mark, we have only 29 actually in the academy training. And as we pass the mid-year mark, over 70 veteran officers have already left. We are in a boat, with a huge hole in the bottom. We are bailing it out a little at a time. We can't bail out the water fast enough. Not fast enough and not enough buckets. As the saying goes, we are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. This administration's failure to provide security to the population of NOLA is tantamount to a slow Katrina.

"And from whom does the Mayor beg for help? From anyone.

"From the federal government. The same federal government that has handcuffed, blindfolded, and shackled our officers by way of an unmanageable consent decree. The same federal government that has effectively destroyed our ability to provide adequate off-duty security details to private citizens. It should also be mentioned that federal agents, regardless how well-intentioned, cannot write reports, write traffic tickets, and do a host of other duties required daily by municipal law-enforcement officers. So why should we expect the government to be able to bail us out of the consequences of a mismanaged police department?

"And then there's the begging to the Louisiana State Police. A hundred state troopers permanently assigned to New Orleans? That request alone is a tacit admission of utter failure. For the first time in history, the Mayor feels the need to ask for the permanent installation of law-enforcement officers from somewhere other than the Home Rule Chartered NOPD. This, after investigating the legal implications of contracting out law-enforcement services from the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office.

"Ironically, many of those state troopers who will help during the Essence Festival and whom the Mayor begs to remain here were wearing NOPD uniforms last year. Perhaps if he hadn't mismanaged the NOPD, they'd still be here. This isn't just a funding issue. It's a "throw in the towel" gesture. And it's no wonder the governor will not commit to much beyond Essence and the summer. The Louisiana State Police are just that -- STATE police. They have other jurisdictions whose citizens expect their service as much as Mr. Landrieu does. And while it is reasonable to ask and expect some help during Mardi Gras, Super Bowl, and other mega-events with state benefit and interest, to expect 100 troopers to be permanently assigned here is quixotic at best. It won't happen.

"I should point out that any assistance from any law enforcement agency, even temporary and fleeting, will be welcomed. Protecting citizens and supporting our understaffed officers is enormously appreciated. It is the expectation and permanent reliance on that assistance by this administration that is infuriating. It is the refusal to admit where we are, and do what is necessary to repair the damage. What happened to, "I know what's wrong and I know how to fix it?" Now it's more like, "I know it looks wrong, but it's not really any worse than anywhere else and it's the state and federal governments' responsibility to fix what I refuse to admit I broke." What?

"Properly supported, funded and managed, the NOPD still has enough dedicated, capable, and determined officers and leaders to stop the hemorrhage and repair damage. The NOPD can provide the public safety it has historically always done. The public needs to demand that their police be allowed to protect them."