On Tuesday, the New Orleans Police Department and Mayor Mitch Landrieu will announce major reforms to how rape cases are handled in the city.
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“Today we come together fully committed to protecting women and children from violence in the city of New Orleans”, Mayor Mitch Landrieu said at a press conference Tuesday (Aug. 11) presenting the measures.
Following the release of the report, five detectives were put on administrative reassignment and internally investigated by the department.
The reforms were proposed by a committee made up of advocates for victims, prosecutors, police and city officials. “This entire team is committed to getting this right, and we’re continuing to rebuild the trust between the department and the community”, said NOPD Chief Michael Harrison. New policies, procedures and training requirements have also begun.
Other changes announced yesterday include moving the police Sex Crimes Unit to the New Orleans Family Justice Center, where victims can meet with detectives and connect to support services.
In addition, more resources and better equipment including smartphones, digital cameras and laptops have been dedicated to the sex crimes and child abuse units.
Tetlow praised the department for the speed with which it adopted numerous 50-plus recommendations generated by the advisory committee, created in the wake of the Inspector General’s report.
“I’ve never seen any level of government work this quickly”, Tetlow said.
Still, many cases weren’t thoroughly investigated by the detectives that Quatrevaux’s office targeted, a group that makes up about a third of the NOPD’s Special Victims Section, the review found.
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“We pointed out a tremendous systems failure”, said Howard Schwartz, the report’s lead investigator.
