Comments on: What’s so great about a national search? http://thelensnola.org/2010/01/27/what%e2%80%99s-so-great-about-a-national-search/ Investigative Journalism from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast States Wed, 16 May 2012 20:21:31 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Cousin Pat from Georgia http://thelensnola.org/2010/01/27/what%e2%80%99s-so-great-about-a-national-search/comment-page-1/#comment-300 Cousin Pat from Georgia Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:18:24 +0000 http://thelensnola.org/?p=3654#comment-300 Yes, but why would a national search and promotion from within be mutually exclusive? By conducting a "national search" are the politicians promising to not hire someone from here? Love it or hate it, we still maintain membership in the "nation" in which the "nation-wide" search will be conducted. The idea should be to acquire the most professional and results-oriented individual currently available. That individual could come from New Orleans or wherever else has produced the best candidate for the job. If the best available candidate can be found on Poydras Street, outstanding. If the best candidate is out of New York or San Antonio or Iowa City, I'm down with that, too. New Orleans deserves the best Police Superintendent we can find. I fail to see how limiting our pool of candidates helps us acheive that goal. Finally, how insulted locals must be when you immediately assume their resumes won't hold their own against those of candidates from elsewhere. Yes, but why would a national search and promotion from within be mutually exclusive?

By conducting a “national search” are the politicians promising to not hire someone from here? Love it or hate it, we still maintain membership in the “nation” in which the “nation-wide” search will be conducted.

The idea should be to acquire the most professional and results-oriented individual currently available. That individual could come from New Orleans or wherever else has produced the best candidate for the job. If the best available candidate can be found on Poydras Street, outstanding. If the best candidate is out of New York or San Antonio or Iowa City, I’m down with that, too.

New Orleans deserves the best Police Superintendent we can find. I fail to see how limiting our pool of candidates helps us acheive that goal.

Finally, how insulted locals must be when you immediately assume their resumes won’t hold their own against those of candidates from elsewhere.

]]> By: dsb nola http://thelensnola.org/2010/01/27/what%e2%80%99s-so-great-about-a-national-search/comment-page-1/#comment-299 dsb nola Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:47:57 +0000 http://thelensnola.org/?p=3654#comment-299 Pennington was surely the last police superintendent who carried any respect in the community and he came from D.C. Compass and Riley rose up through the ranks. Compare, contrast, and there you have it. Feeling generous, I would even suggest many of the cops on the street want someone at the top who commands respect, both locally and nationally. Pennington was surely the last police superintendent who carried any respect in the community and he came from D.C. Compass and Riley rose up through the ranks. Compare, contrast, and there you have it. Feeling generous, I would even suggest many of the cops on the street want someone at the top who commands respect, both locally and nationally.

]]> By: valmcginley http://thelensnola.org/2010/01/27/what%e2%80%99s-so-great-about-a-national-search/comment-page-1/#comment-298 valmcginley Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:46:50 +0000 http://thelensnola.org/?p=3654#comment-298 Thanks for putting into words and on The Lens exactly what I have been thinking when watching the candidates go on and on about a national search and about "community policing" being the panacea. As has been the tradition with school reform, politicians and even the public often turns to candidates from outside of Louisiana as having the answers for our problems when more often than not, it has caused more dysfunction due to lack of knowledge of local culture, history and distrust of the population once the person is here. There are locals who do not believe in the current patronage system and who do have the skills to work towards reform but very often they are looked over - more like looked down upon. It's time for us to look to each other, not to others to reform our broken systems. Thanks for putting into words and on The Lens exactly what I have been thinking when watching the candidates go on and on about a national search and about “community policing” being the panacea. As has been the tradition with school reform, politicians and even the public often turns to candidates from outside of Louisiana as having the answers for our problems when more often than not, it has caused more dysfunction due to lack of knowledge of local culture, history and distrust of the population once the person is here. There are locals who do not believe in the current patronage system and who do have the skills to work towards reform but very often they are looked over – more like looked down upon. It’s time for us to look to each other, not to others to reform our broken systems.

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