Every candidate for mayor has pledged to conduct a national search for a new police superintendent. All but John Georges and Rob Couhig say on their Web sites that this pledge is integral to their program to reduce crime.
The clear inference is that the police force here is so broken, the problems so endemic, that nobody is qualified to be promoted from within.
The uniformity of opinion among mayoral candidates about this is responsive to polling that shows public approval of Police Superintendent Warren Riley and the NOPD at large to be at extraordinarily low levels. Riley has attributed the poor showing to a conspiracy involving the news media and citizen groups to discredit his work and keep him from running for office.
Still, for candidates who have elaborated on their plans to reduce crime, calls for a national search are about more than an easy-to-understand way to distance oneself from an unpopular incumbent regime. They also signal an intention to change the city’s crime-fighting philosophy and recognition of the deep distrust between this community and its police.
There is talk of finding a superintendent with a background implementing “community policing” strategy, a series of tactics designed to improve relations between police and the public. Commanders do this, in part, by increasing the visibility and accessibility of patrol officers and replacing simple marijuana possession and traffic arrests with court citations. Riley has been reluctant to implement many of the reforms sought by advocates of community policing practices.
Between the lines, calls for a national search also indicate an acknowledgment that the current leadership has failed to establish police integrity, as evidenced by ongoing federal investigations of police brutality and the unsettling number of officers who have themselves been arrested.
In forums, James Perry has explicitly criticized the frequency with which police officers are indicted. Others have been more careful, alluding to issues related to police behavior under Warren Riley more obliquely. Mitch Landrieu, for instance, lists experience “taking action against misconduct and abuse” as a prerequisite for his new chief.
Still, criticizing the men and blue can be treacherous for an aspiring office-holder. As unpopular as the NOPD is, individual officers are generally considered to be exemplars of service and sacrifice. The endorsements of local police associations may still hold significant value. Certainly, having a collegial relationship with the NOPD rank-and-file will be critical to the success of the mayor, regardless of who is superintendent.
As a result, the call for a “national search” has become an effective code for criticism of NOPD philosophy and conduct that avoids a more detailed and potentially treacherous assault on the specific failures of current NOPD leadership and officers.
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.
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.
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.