July 31, 2009 …This week, a source within the New Orleans
Police Department confided to me that Police Chief Warren Riley will resign his
post within the next few weeks and begin a campaign for Mayor of the city.
Qualifying for candidates is in early December and the election is in early
February 2010, only six months away.
Riley has served as Police Chief for the past four years.
He replaced Eddie Compass who resigned in the midst of the post-Katrina chaos.
While Riley looks more professional and is certainly a better communicator than
Eddie Compass, he is not a better administrator or leader.
Currently, the NOPD is in disarray and beset with
simultaneous controversies. A prominent member of the District Attorney’s
office is raising questions about whether rapes are being downgraded to lesser
offenses to improve crime statistics in New Orleans .
In addition, the NOPD ignored a state law and failed to
notify the Louisiana Legislative Auditor that $200,000 was missing from the
property and evidence room. Citizens still do not know who stole the money, why
it was not initially reported or how this was allowed to happen. If key
evidence in vital crime cases cannot be secured by the NOPD, the city’s harried
prosecutors will be hamstrung even more.
Most importantly, while some categories of crimes may be
decreasing, murders are on the upswing. Over the past few weeks, New Orleans
has been suffering through a particularly troublesome crime wave that has
boosted murder statistics above last year’s level. In 2008, New Orleans was the
murder capital of the nation and had the third highest murder rate per capita
in the world. So far this year, 118 people have been murdered in New Orleans ,
an increase of 4 from last year at this time. Such a disturbing rate of murder
indicates that New Orleans will likely retain the top murder ranking.
To combat the increased crime, Chief Riley has mandated 12-hour
shifts for his officers, but, clearly, this move is not working. In fact, the
longer shifts have hurt department morale and added more stress for many
officers who are in school, hold other jobs or have families.
While his department is working longer hours, the Chief has
been enjoying extravagant vacations. In July, Riley traveled to Australia to
participate in a law enforcement conference. Why any organization would want to
hear crime fighting tips from the police chief of the murder capital is unknown,
but, while he was away, murders and NOPD controversies continued unabated. Now,
it seems he is distracted by a potential campaign for Mayor of New Orleans.
If he is going to run for Mayor, Chief Riley should not
wait a few weeks to resign; he should leave his post immediately and let
someone take the position that will focus full-time on the most important job
in New Orleans .
New Orleans needs a competent, focused and effective police
chief who will implement aggressive and innovative strategies to reduce the
unacceptable rate of violent crime in the city. Sadly, the city is not very
well served by Police Chief Warren Riley.
It is a scary thought to imagine Warren Riley in City Hall,
managing the multitude of city departments. Mayor Ray Nagin has been bad enough
to withstand, but Mayor Warren Riley will be even more disastrous.
Hopefully, enough voters are unhappy about the Police Chief
and the city’s murder rate to insure that Warren Riley is never promoted to the
top job in the city of New Orleans . If he is elected Mayor, more law abiding
citizens and long suffering business owners will just throw up their hands in
disgust and hit the exits.
