New Orleans Police Department: A Case Study

Superior Essays
On March 16th, 2011 the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division released an Investigation of the New Orleans Police Department. The scathing report found that too many officers within the Department lacked regard to constitutional policing; that respect for the civil rights and dignity of the people of New Orleans has been absent (Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, 2011). Additionally, the report found that those officers are just the tip of the iceberg of a much more structural deficiency within the organization. The constitutional violations found were rooted in how officers were recruited, trained, supervised, and held accountable (Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, 2011). The Obama administration has …show more content…
In addition to the costs of implementing the agreed-upon reforms (equipment, training, etc) there are legal costs incurred by the city and the fees paid by the city to the monitor (Police Executive Research Forum, 2013). The estimated costs per city for monitoring are $1 million per year (Police Executive Research Forum, 2013). These are costs that the city and police agency will need to obtain funding for. Costs though do not necessarily have to be a bad thing in this incidence. The consent decree can actually be utilized as a benefit to the department. The organization can leverage the DOJ to get some things that the department has desperately needed, but has encountered pushback from the union or state (Police Executive Research Forum, 2013). Often times, the force of a court order or decree will open the doors for initiatives that otherwise the department would not have had (Police Executive Research Forum, 2013). It goes without saying that a settlement or consent decree entered into with the DOJ is neither idea nor what any agency should strive for. However given the circumstance of what it is, organizations should be prepared strategically to get the most out of

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