AUG 2022. Blues Vol 38 No. 8.

AROUND THE COUNTRY
MASS EXODUS @ NOLA
Like New York, New Orleans PD is losing officers at a fast
pace and response times exceed 2-3 hours.
By John Simerman
NEW ORLEANS, LA. – Gregory
Rotton’s career as a New Orleans
Police Department officer ended
with a crash.
A detective in the First District,
Rotton was tapped to investigate
after four young people in a stolen
SUV barreled into a St. Claude
Avenue arcade on Jan. 12 with
police in pursuit, severely injuring
a worker.
As he walked away a month
later, after almost seven years on
the force, Rotton said his superiors
pressured him to accuse 19-yearold
Lamar Logan, the lone adult in
the crash, of trying to rob a federal
agent in Treme minutes earlier.
Rotton argued that the account
from the off-duty agent amounted
to “a suspicious person incident at
most.” He said he was then quickly
yanked from a choice assignment.
“I refuse to work for an agency
in which I can be punished for
upholding my oath and the rule of
law,” Rotton wrote in a letter to
the department.
His account sits among hundreds
of pages of officer exit interviews
reviewed by The Times-Picayune,
a hefty stack mostly filled with
harsh criticism for a department
struggling to find and keep offi-
cers.
The interviews are from officers
who resigned or retired in 2022,
many of them leaving for jobs at
other police agencies. Together,
their parting shots echo a chorus
of despair from an overtaxed,
dispirited force that today enters
its second decade under federal
oversight.
When former Mayor Mitch
Landrieu and then-Attorney General
Eric Holder announced the
sprawling federal consent decree
at Gallier Hall on July 24, 2012, the
department employed more than
1,300 commissioned officers, with
a budget for 1,600 and plans to
remake the NOPD in the image of
reform.
Now, fewer than 1,000 officers
remain after a net loss of one in
six officers since the start of last
year. More than 90 have left the
force this year as of early July,
according to police officer groups.
That’s about the same number
who resigned, retired or were fired
in all of 2020.
The departing thoughts of veteran
officers and newbies alike lend
biting and often emotional detail
to a recent NOPD-commissioned
survey that reflected similar discontent,
with pay a distant second
in the reasons officers gave for
leaving in droves.
Overly punitive discipline and
restrictive policies were nearly
twice as likely to be cited as a
reason for officers’ departure than
was pay, according to the survey
by SSA Consultants.
Officers went further in their exit
interviews, speaking of crippling
internal politics, run-down gear, a
lack of support from police brass,
disciplinary head-hunting, and
for many officers, little sign of an
NOPD ready to address its problems.
The exit interviews were provided
by the city in response to a
public records request, with the
names of the officers redacted.
They are identifiable, however,
through other information in the
records.
“I can no longer watch the
citizens suffer to violence and
crime while the department is not
allowed to do the basic service
of protecting the citizens of this
community,” wrote Nathan Gex, a
23-year NOPD veteran who moved
to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s
Office in April. “People become
police officers to make a difference
and protect citizens. This is
not happening, and we hear it and
see it in the community.”
“It’s not about the money. It’s
about job satisfaction and appreciation,”
wrote Joseph Brooks, a
sergeant who resigned in March
after 12 years. “The department
has been in decline for some time.
Disciplinary issues prevent personnel
from performing without
fear of punishment. I would refuse
to be bullied into punishing officers
for minor infractions.”
Some, like Rotton, aired specific
gripes over incidents or supervisors
that soured them. Others
hammered the department in
broad strokes. A few retiring veterans,
including some long-serving
police brass who left this year,
gave the department high marks.
Others declined to participate.
Amid a surge in homicides and
carjackings, confidence among
residents in a downsized police
force also has tanked. The bloodloss
at the NOPD, the exit interviews
show, weighs on those who
remain.
“Sometimes there’s no time to
eat,” said one rookie officer who
resigned to return to school.
Several officers who resigned
this year after stints patrolling
New Orleans East described
clocking in at the Seventh District
to a mountain of unattended 911
calls, with police emergency response
times continuing to hover
at decade highs.
“Working in the 7th district on
‘C’ platoon with only four officers
on the streets with a 55-call
backlog plus threats of (discipline)
if evals and training weren’t done
is ridiculous,” wrote Willie Herron,
who wrote that he was jumping to
St. Tammany Parish after less than
two years.
“Due to working overnight, I never
see my family. Was in the 7th
and the backlog was unbearable,”
wrote Meghan Silva, who quit as
an officer after two years.
In recent months, Mayor LaToya
Cantrell and the City Council have
pushed to reignite an officer recruiting
campaign that has foundered
over the pandemic, while
offering tidy sums to keep officers.
This week, the City Council
approved a plan to help stanch
attrition with big bonus payments
for officers and other public safety
workers. In a year, officers are
slated to receive $5,000 for every
five years they’ve served, up to
$20,000.
Yet in their exit interviews, officers
generally praised the NOPD’s
pay, benefits and academy training,
while panning department
culture.
Joshua Fontenot, a senior police
officer who resigned after seven
years, wrote that the NOPD’s “pension
system and pay are amazing,”
but that “cronyism is rampant.”
Fontenot took a scorched-earth
approach in the space marked
for suggestions: “Fire everyone,
dissolve the department and start
over.”
The NOPD’s federal overseers
have not been nearly as despairing,
praising department leaders
for dramatic strides toward compliance
in all areas of the reform
agreement.
It’s still unclear, however, when
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan
plans to release the department
from court oversight. In April,
Morgan projected a phase-out to
begin in June. That timetable has
passed with no public action.
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