Making good on a pledge to overhaul the city's controversial
paid police-detail system, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said Thursday that
he has drafted a retired military officer to head up an office that will
oversee the program "outside of NOPD control." The hiring of former
Lt. Col. John Salomone marks the first major effort in a half-century to
streamline management of details that provide security at private sites around
the city, sometimes paying officers more than their Police Department salaries.
Reform of the detail system has been a key point in negotiations between city
leaders and the U.S. Department of Justice over an impending consent decree
expected to lay out a series of reforms at NOPD -- and impose sanctions if
benchmarks aren't met. The federal agency has criticized the city's detail
operation, calling it an "aorta of corruption."
In the past, Landrieu has said there is nothing inherently
wrong with details, but that problems have arisen from the program's
mismanagement. By moving now to set up what will be called the Police Secondary
Employment Office, Landrieu said his administration is not waiting on the
consent decree to act.
"We all know that the flawed paid detail system has
failed both the NOPD, and more importantly, our citizens," Landrieu said
in a written statement. "But change is hard.
"It will take time to move from an unregulated system
in which officers could broker individual paid details with businesses and
replace it with a new, centralized system that has strong oversight yet still
serves customers effectively."
Landrieu said Salomone, who retired in October after a
21-year career in the Army, and administration staffers will be working in the
coming months with police officers, businesses, schools, neighborhood
organizations and other groups that currently employ paid details to ensure a
smooth transition.
Many police departments across the nation have centralized
offices to manage details, but the Landrieu administration says creating a new
office that coordinates all details and reports to leadership outside of the
Police Department takes the reform a step further.
The changes outlined Thursday appear to fall in line with
the Justice Department's recommendations for a centralized, outside agency to
control the NOPD's detail machine.
In sketching out the proposed reforms last year, Police
Superintendent Ronal Serpas said the new office would mete out detail
assignments, choosing officers from among applicants on a rotating basis. At
that time, he said other reforms would include eliminating all direct
details-related payments to officers. Details for city agencies and political
subdivisions will also be barred.
Landrieu aides said Thursday that other elements of the
consent decree that will govern the new office and secondary employment will be
announced in the coming months.
At one point last year, Serpas became enmeshed in a
controversy over details, with some citizens calling on the chief to resign or
for Landrieu to fire him.
A year ago, Landrieu suspended 8th District Police Commander
Edwin Hosli, a close friend of Serpas, and Public Works Director Robert
Mendoza, who oversaw officers' after-hours work reviewing traffic violations
caught on tape by the city's red-light cameras.
Hosli ran the company, Anytime Solutions, which worked as a
subcontractor to the city's main traffic-camera vendor. Also employed by the
firm were Serpas' driver and his son-in-law.
At the time, Serpas said he didn't know of his close
associates' involvement in the traffic-camera detail until he received an
inspection report of activities in the 8th District. That report was delivered
in late March last year.
Serpas added that his administration is the first to try to
get a handle on detail work. Citing reports, he said 1,100 police officers had
worked some 30,000 details over the prior six months.
On Thursday, Serpas said fixing the "failed'' detail
system will not be easy, adding: "The changes must be lasting and
sustainable and new rules and policies must be better enforced.''
Salomone has never worked in law enforcement. He will report
to Chief Administrative Officer Andy Kopplin.
After graduating from Georgetown University, Salomone was
commissioned into the Army Quartermaster Corps in May 1990. He served tours in
Iraq, Cuba, Somalia and Korea.
Salomone was selected for the Advanced Civil Schooling
Program in 1998 through which he earned his master's degree from North Carolina
State University in 2000. He has taught at the United States Military Academy
at West Point and oversaw career training at the British Defense Logistics
School from 2007 to 2010.