NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) —The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld Mayor Latoya Cantrell’s request for a pause on public hearings related to the NOPD consent decree. Those hearings are required by federal Judge Suzie Morgan.
“It was a step in the right direction, giving and breathing life of objectivity back into this, not subjectivity,” said Cantrell about the Court’s ruling, “I’ve always wrestled with the fact that I really don’t believe that we’ve been given unbiased monitoring. I believe that it’s been biased.”
Cantrell maintains that the city no longer needs the federal oversight imposed by the consent decree to monitor the NOPD’s policies and practices.
“We have the tools and resources in place to insure that we stay on the right path, in terms of sustained reforms and continue to be that model police department relative to constitutional police practices,” she said.
Currently the next federal hearing has been pushed back 30 days.
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