New Orleanians deserve to know the truth about the federal consent decree. Whatever it is. We know the costs are staggering. But we don’t know how to get out of it. Is there a federal consent decree guideline resource? The consent decree has cost millions of dollars. While you can’t put a price on lives the consent decree saved, you really can’t determine how many lives that is. How do you measure effectiveness?
NOPD Consent Decree Stops Progress
Consent decrees are good temporary measures to control police departments that show “a pattern or practice of conduct” that deprives people of their constitutional rights. The NOPD was a notoriously bad department. The Danziger Bridge murders were the final straw. After years of physically abusing citizens, the department entered a federal consent decree. The terms of the open-ended decree are specific to every area of the department. There is even a termination section that basically says the DOJ and the city must agree to terminate the agreement. If the DOJ objects, then the city has the burden of proof. A federal judge must agree with the city that the NOPD is compliant with all the consent decree requirements.
But there are several issues inherent in this system. Most significantly is the lack of community input. The consent decree is a legal agreement between the city and the DOJ. This agreement is court run. In fact the agreement has a one way approach to community involvement. It reports to the community. This is not a two-way street. The court does not hear from the community. And the information the court provides to the community is limited in scope. We get to hear whatever the judge wants us to hear.
NOPD Consent Decree Stops Progress
We just don’t know if the NOPD is better. But it feels better. There is much more transparency. New Orleans does not have crazy dangerous police chases. These often end badly. Just two weeks ago, the Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Department chased a stolen car from JP to New Orleans. The stolen car crashed into an uninvolved motorist who was just driving home. But a speeding car barreled into the car. The uninvolved motorist was injured. His car was totaled. The stolen car was also totaled. The assailants got away on foot. Oh, and the JP police car was totaled after it crashed into the stolen car. NOPD has not had a violent chase since they killed people and destroyed a thriving black owned beauty supply and salon.
Related: Should We Get Rid of the Consent Decree?
But comparing NOPD to the wild and unconstitutional actions of JP is useless. The biggest issue with the current structure is that no meaningful community-based change can happen. But the judge is neither swayed by the numerous controversial police shootings in JP or Mayor Cantrell’s claims of compliance to exit the consent decree. The structure of consent decrees eliminates community input. So real police reform does not happen during a consent decree. In fact, these agreements only seek to solidify a constitutional police department. So, training officers on mental health is not accomplished. And sensitizing officers to the struggles of homelessness is impossible to impart.
NOPD Consent Decree Stops Progress
Certainly, police misconduct is significantly reduced now. But no meaningful police reform is even possible during the consent decree. The only change is to ensure that constitutional guardrails define police conduct. But no improvements in mental health training, new modern de-escalation techniques or meaningful bias reduction were ever possible. The costs associated with the consent decree are a real concern for a poor city like New Orleans. But the fact that is still an old school police department is what we get after millions of dollars and over a decade spent.
We need to be able to get a clear exit plan to start meaningful reform.
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu
Publisher — Black Source Media
Jeff Thomas
Publisher • Opinion Columnist • Licensed General Contractor • Real Estate Appraiser • New Orleans
Jeff Thomas is the publisher of Black Source Media and one of New Orleans’ most direct voices on civic affairs, economic justice, and Louisiana politics. He writes from the intersection of experience and accountability — as a licensed general contractor,a tech company founder and executive with over 30 years experience, and a businessman who has worked across the city’s civic, media, and construction ecosystems for decades.
His Sunday column covers Louisiana legislative politics, insurance discrimination, housing policy, and the forces shaping Black community life in New Orleans and across the state. Thomas writes in the tradition of Black journalists who hold power accountable without apology — building arguments from data, delivering verdicts from evidence, and speaking to Black New Orleans with the directness the moment demands.
He is also the principal of EA Inspection Services, LLC, a government inspection services company. Black Source Media is his platform for the civic conversation New Orleans has needed and too rarely had.
Selected Articles by Jeff Thomas
Black Neighborhoods Pay the Highest Insurance Rates in Louisiana. Here’s What They Don’t Want You to Know.
They Didn’t Yell the N-Word. They Went to Law School, Bided Their Time, and Rewrote the Constitution Instead.
Vappie vs. Morrell: Why Does Justice Look Different in New Orleans?
The State Has the Money. New Orleans East Just Needs Them to Use It.
The Failure of Mitch Landrieu