This image from Mandy Serpas’ Facebook page shows her with a man who appears to be NOPD officer Travis Ward. Personal relationships – including his adult daughter’s cop boyfriend – will not influence Ronal Serpas’ implementation of police reform, the New Orleans Police Department Superintendent said Tuesday night after a public meeting with Department of […]
Category: Criminal Justice
Posted inCriminal Justice
Activists plan Thursday protest against NOPD chief Serpas
Serpas New Orleans celebrated the inauguration of Mayor Mitch Landrieu with a jubilant second line last Monday. Smiling wide and swaying from the hips, the new mayor danced through downtown New Orleans. Rebirth Brass Band played. Men in suits and ladies in hats clapped as they trotted along the smooth – for New Orleans – […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Ronal Serpas is Landrieu’s choice; big changes are coming to the NOPD
A few hours ago, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced that former NOPD Deputy Superintendent and current Nashville police chief Ronal Serpas will lead the NOPD. Landrieu was enthusiastic and effusive in his praise of Serpas, whom he said presented “clear and away the best resume that many people in the country have seen.” “This is the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Serpas' daughter is connected to suspended NOPD officer
The adult daughter of a finalist for New Orleans police chief shares a house with one of the NOPD officers who was present at a Mid-City bar when off-duty colleagues allegedly beat a group of city transit workers, an event that is the subject of a FBI civil rights investigation.
Posted inCriminal Justice
With Landrieu's invitation, federal intervention in NOPD is now a certainty
Mayor Mitch Landrieu earlier today announced in unequivocal terms that he wants the Justice Department to be actively involved in the reformation of the tormented New Orleans Police Department. Landrieu, standing beside more than a dozen community leaders, said at a news conference that he wants the Justice Department to come in and do an […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Coalition wants intervention from feds in NOPD; Landrieu position is still unclear
Earlier today, more than two dozen organizations signed onto a letter addressed to Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, the head of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. The letter calls on the Department of Justice to intervene in local police departments guilty of civil rights abuse, to sue the NOPD and to obtain a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Ronald Davis or Ronal Serpas
Today, Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu announced that he had whittled down his choices for next NOPD superintendent to two but did not name them. A source with knowledge of the interview process has told The Lens that the two are current Nashville chief and former NOPD Deputy Ronal Serpas and current East Palo Alto top cop […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Government & Politics
Finally cooking with gas: NOPD Superintendent candidates and an emerging fiscal crisis
Mitch Landrieu officially will be mayor of New Orleans next week. So this week, we’re finally beginning to get an idea of what his actual transition will be like – the one in which he actually takes over the job of leading the city. First, the cops: While the NOPD clearly has been at the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
LaBruzzo’s war on welfare continues with drug test
Last year, State Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, earned national infamy with his proposal to pay female welfare recipients to get sterilized. He was duly punished for his tribute to the eugenics movement and homage to former Metairie legislator David Duke: He was removed from his seat on the Health and Welfare Committee to demonstrate Louisiana’s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Trouble in the moonlighting
In addition to everything else going on with the local men and women in blue last week, a veteran NOPD detective, Herman Franklin, was charged with payroll fraud. The Times-Picayune notes that there is some controversy over the prosecutor’s decision, at first, to remand the detective and another officer to an alternative sentencing program that […]