Superintendent Shaun Ferguson is taking over a New Orleans Police Department that is in much better shape than it was a few years ago, the New Orleans Times-Picayune says in an editorial. The department is six years into a federal court consent decree that ordered wide-ranging reforms to eliminate unconstitutional policing. U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan has praised the department for making significant strides. Yet monitor Jonathan Aronie says “substantial work remains to be done” in areas like bias-free policing, community policing, performance evaluations, and stops, searches, and arrests.
Superintendent Ferguson, who was sworn in Friday, says he is committed to constitutional policing under the consent decree. A survey last fall found that 55 percent of residents were satisfied with the police department’s performance in 2018 compared with 51 percent in 2017. These ratings are far higher than when the survey started in 2009 amid federal investigations into Katrina-era crimes committed by police officers. Overall satisfaction then was at only 33 percent. Officers are being trained to handle crisis situations. The program is voluntary, but about 40 percent of officers have gone through Crisis Intervention Team training. More officers have been trained than the consent decree requires, but the goal ought to be to get every officer trained, the newspaper says. Ferguson needs to rebuild the police force, says the Times-Picayune. As of Dec. 13, there were 1,162 officers and 59 recruits on the payroll. That still leaves the department at least 200 officers short of the city’s hiring goal.