NEW ORLEANS — Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Superintendent Michael Harrison launched NOPD recruit class #183  Monday morning, the last class the Mayor will launch with his term ending in just 35 days.

This is their 17th recruit class since they started rehiring in 2010.

There are 32 recruits. Six of them female. Eleven of them have a military background. A majority have college credit or bachelor’s degrees. Most of them are from Lousiana. Five are New Orleans natives.

So now as their 26 week training begins, the chief and mayor offered words of encouragement, but didn’t sugarcoat it either.

“Failure is not an option. Giving up is not an option. Going to sleep, getting weak — they are not option. We are charging you with being strong everyday, because the residents are expecting you to be there,” Chief Harrison said.

“You wouldn’t be here today if we didn’t think you’d be a great member of this police department and we didn’t have the utmost confident in you. But you’re going to have to make it through it. It’s designed to be hard. It’s designed to invoke discipline. And it’s designed to teach you how to help each other,” Landrieu said.

If you’re interested in joining the NOPD go to www.joinnopd.org