The New Orleans Police Department started hosting meetings this week to allow the public the chance to provide feedback on a plan to ramp down federal oversight over a two-year period following a request by the city and U.S. Department of Justice to exit the consent decree on Sept. 27.

The meetings, which will continue next week, have occurred so far at NOPD stations in the fourth, third and second districts. NOPD Deputy Superintendent Nicholas Gernon has led the meetings and answered questions from attendees.

At the Second District meeting held Thursday evening (Oct. 10), resident Patti Lapeyre asked about the sparse attendance at the meeting that night.

“How can we get more people to know about this?” Lapeyre asked Gernon. “This is huge.”

Lapeyre said that she was concerned about the lack of residents at the meeting. And so far, her concern may be warranted.

Each meeting held this week has had only a handful of residents. Six people attended the Fourth District meeting on Wednesday evening (Oct. 9) and the Second District meeting on Thursday evening. Only two people showed up at the Third District meeting on Thursday afternoon (Oct. 10).

Gernon told Lapeyre that the process of public feedback has only just started and that these meetings are the first in a series of communication plans the department will implement.

“The next step in this will be answering the community’s feedback through social media, public information campaigns, press releases,” Gernon said.

He continued, saying that each district’s community liaison officers will also help inform the public about the possibility of exiting the consent decree and the proposed sustainment plan. Gernon also encouraged attendees to spread the word.

After the meeting was over, Gernon told Verite News that he would like to see more people come to these meetings, but said that traditional ways of engaging the community are changing. He reiterated that the department can use social media to publicize the meetings.

In addition to encouraging people to provide feedback online, Gernon also mentioned that people can email the court at clerk@laed.uscourts.gov, as well as send in physical mail, to submit feedback to the court.

“I am not overly concerned that there’s not a lot of people here, because I know that people engage the police department on different levels and platforms, and it’s up to us to meet them where they are,” Gernon said.

Gernon said that NOPD plans to use social media by answering questions from residents and asking for more feedback. Gernon predicts this will all happen over the next few months.

NOPD isn’t the only one holding public meetings about the potential path toward an exit from federal oversight. The federal consent decree monitors are holding meetings, too, on dates and in locations to be announced soon, according to its website.

Gernon said he believes it is important for New Orleanians to pay attention to and engage with what is occurring around the consent decree because it will influence the city’s future.

“This is the future of our community,” Gernon said. “The New Orleans Police Department is deeply embedded in the community. It’s interwoven in the community and when we do poorly, our community suffers, and when we do well, our community excels and meets its true potential. So we are a partnership with the community, and it’s extremely important that we continue to build those to maintain those connections with our community.”

After the meeting was over, Lapeyre said that her concerns about attendance were alleviated.

“I think he answered it well, saying this is just the beginning,” Lapeyre said. “I’m not as concerned knowing that this is just the first step, and we have until November the 8th for letters to be written.”

Lapeyre is referring to Judge Susie Morgan signing an order on Wednesday (Oct. 9) extending the public comment period.

In order for the city and DOJ to exit the consent decree, Morgan needs to approve the NOPD’s transition to a sustainment period. If she approves, the department will enter a period where NOPD has to prove that it can follow designated benchmarks to police itself. If they do so, then the consent decree — the federal oversight program — will end. If they do not, Morgan can return the NOPD back to where it was before the sustainment period.

Lapeyre said that she is optimistic about the sustainment period if Morgan approves.

“I think that they’ve [NOPD] shown their due diligence, and it’s time to give them a chance to show everybody,” Lapeyre said. “If it slips, if anybody slips, they have a safeguard in place.”

Algiers resident and community advocate Bee Martin was at a consent decree meeting hosted by the First District Police Community Advisory Board in Treme on Sept. 30 and attended the Fourth District meeting Wednesday.

Martin hopes that the benchmarks officers have to meet through the sustainment plan will help reform the department and show officers how to police constitutionally.

“It still takes a decent, moral human being to conduct a decent community,” Martin said.

Source: This article first appeared on Verite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Photo by Sora Shimazaki: https://www.pexels.com/photo/judgement-scale-and-gavel-in-judge-office-5669602/