NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The New Orleans Police Department continues to inch its way closer toward the removal of the consent decree it’s been facing for over a decade.
The hearing that’s taking place Wednesday will focus on the bias-free policing component of the decree.
“They’re going to talk about how they have trained their officers in biased free policing. They’re going to talk about all of the data that’s being collected and they’re going to present that to the court,” said New Orleans Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche.
The court will eventually set another court date where the judge will confirm whether or not the department is practicing biased-free policing according to the data previously presented by the NOPD.
“If both of those processes go well for the department, I think that that’s the last hurdle that the department will have to clear unless they have fallen out of compliance in some other areas that we are unaware of,” said Goyeneche.
If the department is given the thumbs up regarding this component of the consent decree, a motion may be made to determine if it is substantial enough to trigger a two-year wind-down period.
“At the end of the two-year wind-down period, the department will present all of its findings and data will be confirmed by the federal monitors and then the judge will decide if the consent decree is satisfied. If it’s satisfied, that’s the end of the consent decree,” Goyeneche said.
Giving hope to many residents.
“No one wants to live in a city where you have fear of being out in public doing whatever x, y and z, and I would hope that in five years we would have gone past this and our police department is fully staffed, and fully operational and can do all the things in public without sacrificing anything else,” said New Orleans worker Evan Broussard.
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