NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Federal Judge Susie Morgan’s Consent Decree Hearing has proven not to be the outcome the NOPD wanted.

During the hearing Federal Judge Susie Morgan detailed big challenges still facing the department. But the interim chief wasn’t there to hear them.

Federal Judge Morgan begin the proceedings by saying she was disappointed that the NOPD Superintendent wasn’t there and concerned that her absence showed a lack of interest and engagement in the consent decree process.

Judge Morgan did not require the NOPD or other city officials to be there, if you recall a mandatory hearing was called earlier this month.

Today, the monitors updated the status of the NOPD’s compliance efforts, and while they did not commend the department’s recruiting improvements and enhance civilian employment, the monitors voiced concern about attrition of officers saying that the department lost 157 officers in 2021 and 154 officers in 2022 while only hiring 46 and 26 respectively.

The monitors also stated that the lack of personnel acutely affects the department’s ability to investigate crimes like sexual assault. The NOPD’s clearance rate was only 11% in 2019 and has dropped to only 3% in 2022.

The city attorney’s objected to the monitors’ findings, saying that the information was not shared with them prior to today’s hearing. The monitors concluded their presentation with and I quote “We have prepared a report covering our findings from our recent PID audit, which will be issued shortly”

We have also completed a report of our review of the PIB’s handling of the investigation into Officer Jeffrey Vappie, which we also will be issuing shortly.”

See completed report:

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