NOPD Superintendent of Police Ronal Serpas addresses officers of the Sixth District as Lt. Jeff Walls (center) and Capt. Robert Bardy listen.
The city government’s willingness to support New Orleans police financially will be directly based on whether the public believes the department is leaving behind its scandal-ridden recent past, Chief Ronal Serpas told officers in the Sixth District on Thursday.
“You didn’t do the things that have been admitted, but you have to do the things to overcome them,” Serpas said.
The department’s 2011 budget request to the city council focuses singularly on staffing, the chief told the officers during an informal discussion during the Sixth District’s usual weekly meeting. Serpas’ goals for the coming year, he said, are to prevent any layoffs, end the forced furlough days that leave every shift shorthanded, and begin hiring new officers.
During the meeting, officers asked when the department will be able to return to awarding raises with promotions, a practice Serpas flatly said will be impossible to afford next year. Likewise, he said, the only hope for new police cars in 2011 is to find those within the department that can be refurbished or reassigned.
But even to include the chief’s staffing goals in next year’s budget, the Landrieu administration must ask for more than $30 milion in new taxes from New Orleanians, Serpas said, at a time when “the public is not 100 percent in support of the city.” If the city agrees to the department’s requests, the officers must then prove to everyone they meet that the investment was worth it, he told them.
“Every time you talk to somebody, you have a chance to make a supporter for this police department,” Serpas said. “You also have a chance to make a lifelong enemy. Every time you talk to somebody in a way you wouldn’t talk to your own child, you make it harder for every single one of us.”
Officers must take the time to explain every decision they make to the people they encounter, Serpas said. If they pull someone over, they must first explain the traffic infraction they saw before asking for the driver’s identification.
“If you tell people why it is you’re doing what you’re doing, they almost always walk away feeling better about the exchange,” Serpas said.
On his way to the Sixth District station in Central City, Serpas said he saw an officer make a left turn at an intersection where it’s clearly prohibited.
“Don’t they realize that by doing that, we reinforce in the minds of people curious about us that we can’t even follow the rules?” Serpas asked. “You are public creatures. When you do things in public that are embarrassing, you embarrass everyone. Every single day we go out and get it right, when we swing for the fences and make big arrests, we gain a little bit in the non-interest-bearing account of trust. Every day we do silly things, we lose a little bit of that.”
The public firing of three officers Wednesday for a miscellany of criminal offenses was part of that effort, Serpas said.
“Yesterday was clear, right?” Serpas said. “I’m not going to employ anybody that’s pleading guilty in court to breaking the law.”
Rather, Serpas encouraged the officers assembled to be more proactive. The police department will soon begin training patrol officers in fingerprinting, Serpas said, a new initiative that represents the direction the department should be moving in.
“There ought to be a cloud over New Orleans when that’s done. You can solve cases every single day. You’re not report writers, you’re police investigators, and we need to treat you that way,” Serpas said, saying much smaller departments using the kits solve multiple break-ins per day with them. “Two people a day with their fingerprints in somebody else’s house and you found it. How would you like to be a part of that?”
Serpas addressed a small group of us at a private breakfast the week of his installation, and was very impressive. But after initial excitement about him, my confidence in his judgment was badly damaged by watching him focus on shutting down street musicians, even in commercial and touristy areas. This was something no other police chief ever attempted, and is not only needlessly destructive to our culture, but actually promotes crime by taking away yet another meaningful activity for at risk teens and young men. It also takes police manpower away from crime fighting, to harass musicians. Bizarre, and deeply discouraging.
Then there is his stated new focus on car stops, which with traffic cameras, is another assault on quality of life for law abiding citizens.
Look, I haven’t forgotten what it is like to have a grossly incompetent, and paranoid, police chief like Serpas’ predecessor. But so far the crime stats are not improving, and he seems to be working very hard to ‘suburbanize’ New Orleans.
I’ve been impressed with the mayor, but not (so far) his choice of police chief.
I think New Orleans best days are ahead of it, but not if people like Dr. Serpas get their way and crush our music culture and harass our ordinary citizens.