After more than a decade under federal oversight, the New Orleans Police Department will finally have a chance to prove that it can police itself, a judge ruled Tuesday (Jan. 14).
Since 2013, the NOPD has been under an expansive consent decree, intended to reshape virtually every aspect of the agency, with court-appointed monitors closely tracking its progress. Now, U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan’s ruling will allow the department to enter a two-year “sustainment” period — effective immediately.
While acknowledging the department still has work to do to come into full compliance with the consent decree, Morgan said that the NOPD has turned around since federal oversight began. The entry of the consent decree followed a 2011 investigation identifying a pattern of unconstitutional practices by the department, including racial profiling, failing to adequately investigate officer misconduct and using excessive force.
“The NOPD is a far different agency from the one that spawned DOJ’s investigation in 2011 and the imposition of the consent decree in 2013,” Morgan said Tuesday.
Morgan, however, lambasted a last-minute maneuver by Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s administration — working with Gov. Jeff Landry and state Attorney General Liz Murrill — to terminate the consent decree altogether, even as city officials had publicly backed the two-year sustainment period. Morgan said the move “diminishes the credibility of the top leadership of the city.”
In a statement, Murrill called the sustainment period “a false and empty promise.”
“Every minute of every day that NOPD is spending in federal court is time not spent focusing on protecting the public,” she said. “NOPD should have been released from federal court supervision two years ago. Instead, this morning, Judge Susie Morgan denied the City’s request for termination and expanded the list of things NOPD must do to get out.”
A spokesperson for Cantrell referred Verite News to a news release — issued Monday, prior to the ruling — asserting that the NOPD achieved the goals of the consent decree “years ago” and reiterating the administration’s support for bringing a conclusion to the reform agreement.
Landry’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The decision comes less than four months after the city of New Orleans and the Department of Justice asked Morgan to establish an off-ramp from federal oversight, arguing that the NOPD is now sufficiently compliant with constitutional policing requirements. On Monday, Morgan heard directly from NOPD officials and DOJ attorneys, who pledged that guardrails will still be in place to ensure reforms don’t budge.
The NOPD has said that its reforms — and efforts to go above and beyond the consent decree requirements — have placed the department at the vanguard of policing in the country. Under federal oversight, the NOPD has essentially rewritten its policies and procedures, and the consent decree has required a level of public transparency rarely seen in law enforcement agencies.
Still, progress has waxed and waned in recent years, with the federal monitors observing backsliding in some key areas, including its paid detail system and investigations into officer misconduct. Morgan noted that in 2023, she considered whether to find the city in contempt of court over internal investigators’ failure to fully examine Officer Jeffrey Vappie, then a member of Cantrell’s security detail, for payroll fraud.
Vappie, who was alleged to be involved in a romantic relationship with Cantrell, was accused of being paid improperly for time he was spending with Cantrell. Vappie, who has since retired from the department, now faces federal charges over the allegations.
Morgan also noted that the department has yet to fully reach compliance in bias-free policing, particularly in the area of policing free of gender bias.
“This is no minor matter,” Morgan said. “The U.S. Constitution guarantees equal protection to everyone, including women.”
‘11th-hour legal maneuvering’
Critics have at times deemed the consent decree to be cumbersome and expensive, a factor in declines in officer morale and officer shortages. In recent years, one of the consent decree’s most prominent critics has been Cantrell herself, who made a bid in 2022 to extricate the city altogether from court oversight.
The Cantrell administration attempted to resurrect that effort in a surprise court filing last week, asking Morgan to rule on the two-year-old motion to terminate the consent decree. In that filing, the city said it was “persuaded” by legal analyses offered by Landry and Murrill, who have both called for an outright end to federal oversight.
The move prompted pushback from the DOJ, which noted Monday that the NOPD is not in “substantial” compliance with the consent decree. The New Orleans City Council also objected to Cantrell’s attempts to add a lawyer from Murrill’s office to the city’s legal team on the matter. On Tuesday, Morgan denied both requests.
“Friday’s 11th-hour legal maneuvering undermined a decade of work by the NOPD, and needlessly politicized this important legal proceeding,” Morgan said.”It appears to the court to be political gamesmanship that threatens the integrity of this court’s role in the implementation of the consent decree.”
In her statement, Murrill said she plans to Morgan’s decision. Neither her office nor the state is a party to the consent decree.
In recent months, some community groups and other police observers have pointed to problems they say still persist within the department, including on issues like racial bias, police brutality and community engagement.
Morgan sought to reassure those critics, saying that federal oversight will continue during the sustainment period.
“The court and the monitor will remain vigilant to ensure that implemented reforms are sustained and the parties commitments under the sustainment plan are honored,” she said.
Following a successful sustainment period, Morgan — who has presided over the consent decree since it was first implemented — could ultimately decide to terminate the agreement. But signs of backsliding on police reforms could also lead Morgan to extend the sustainment period.