New Orleans PD revamp comprehensive, expensive

A court-backed plan to excise corruption, discrimination and a frequent use of deadly force from the long-troubled New Orleans Police Department will last at least four years and likely cost the financially strapped city $11 million annually. Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced the plan Tuesday, says the agreement is the most wide-ranging in the Justice Department’s history and resolves allegations that New Orleans police officers have engaged in a pattern of discriminatory and unconstitutional activity. It comes in the form of a court-approved consent decree, an agreement the Justice Department negotiated with the city after releasing a scathing report taking the department to task on multiple fronts in March 2011. The agreement includes extensive requirements for improved training, better supervision and new technology including cameras in police cars. Mayor Mitch Landrieu estimates the plan’s cost at roughly $11 million a year over the next four to five years. The agreement spells out a series of strict requirements for overhauling the police department’s policies and procedures for use of force, training, interrogations, searches and arrests, recruitment and supervision. Read the full story here.