Beginning of the end? NOPD would be at consent decree's end were it not for mayor's mistakes, says watchdog

The New Orleans Police Department is preparing for a two-year phase out of the federal consent decree. But a criminal justice watchdog says they would be done with that phase-out by now if it weren't for some bad decisions made at the very top.

"We'd be well into the sustainment period and approaching the termination of the consent decree were it not for some of the city's misguided efforts in 2022 and 2023," said New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche.

Instead, Goyeneche says Mayor LaToya Cantrell fumbled the NOPD's efforts as it was nearing its goal.

"By some misguided notion, the mayor was pushing the city attorney's office to terminate the consent decree just because it was too burdensome and too costly," he told WWL's Newell Normand. "That started a two-year period in which the department actually back-slid in compliance with areas that they had previously been in compliance with."

Goyeneche says that, and the botched internal investigation into Officer Jeffrey Vappie, set the department's consent decree compliance back two years.

Vappie is now under federal indictment, accused of payroll fraud. Prosecutors say Vappie claimed work hours for private time spent with Mayor Cantrell.