New Orleans Police Department Research Articles

Evaluating implementation of the EPIC peer bystander intervention program in basic law enforcement training (BLET)

ABSTRACT Mandated by a consent decree, the Ethical Policing is Courageous (EPIC) program was developed by the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD). The EPIC curriculum is based on active bystandership, encouraging officers to intervene when police misconduct could potentially occur. This research sought to evaluate the EPIC program recently adopted in one state. An adapted integrity measuring instrument from the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) developed by Klockars et al. was used to compare officers who have recently completed the ethics programming being phased out against officers who participated in the EPIC program. Results indicate a significant difference in the areas of reporting and intervening with respect to excessive force. Implications for further research are also provided.

Police Reform Through Data-Driven Management

Over a 2-year span, the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) transformed from a department struggling to comply with its expansive federal consent decree to one exploring even broader reforms through a data-driven management approach. NOPD believes more than ever in the adage you manage what you measure. NOPD conducts monthly audits of consent decree compliance and distributes the results to hold leadership accountable for implementing reforms. Through frequent audits, NOPD has produced dramatic, swift compliance improvements. Concurrently, NOPD leadership introduced a data-driven management framework that addressed all facets of management: MAX (Management Analytics for Excellence). This article presents the viewpoints of two sides of the consent decree: NOPD and the federal judge overseeing implementation of the consent decree. NOPD and its monitoring partners use MAX’s performance metrics to monitor reform implementation and address areas requiring improvement. This article details how to implement reforms through a data-driven management approach.

Chaos Theory and Organizational Crisis: A Theoretical Analysis of the Challenges Faced by the New Orleans Police Department During Hurricane Katrina

The Hurricane Katrina disaster presented the first responder agencies of New Orleans with an extraordinary set of circumstances. Although all first responder operations were hampered by the disaster, the police department’s struggles were made most visible in the media. This article examines the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the organizational functions of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) during and immediately after the disaster using chaos theory as a model for analyzing the crisis faced by the department. Chaos theory has implications for a variety of features that are essential to organizational functions and management behavior that are relevant to first responder agencies. Review of the challenges faced by NOPD has implications for preparedness plans for other first responder agencies.

Coping through a Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina

In the face of manmade and natural disasters, first responders are called upon to respond to emergencies, protect the public, and mitigate further disaster consequences. While this is a professional expectation, extreme crisis events can present an inimitable set of challenges for responders, particularly when they are personally impacted by the disaster in which they are expected to respond. The media reports of “abandonment of duty” among police officers in New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina disaster highlight the need to better understand factors that both challenge and encourage resilience among first responders. This study examines the coping practices that fostered resilience among the officers of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) who served as first responders to the Katrina disaster. To gain insight into the experiences and activities of officers during the most stressful parts of the crisis, face-to-face interviews were conducted with officers (N = 57) of varying ranks and divisions. The data demonstrates the dynamic nature of coping in disasters, as well as the range of strategies practiced by first responders in crisis situations.

Mental Health Outcomes in Police Personnel After Hurricane Katrina

We examined symptoms of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) personnel who provided law enforcement and relief services to affected communities following Hurricane Katrina. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of mental health outcomes related to personal and work-related exposures of police personnel 8 weeks after the Hurricane. Of the 912 police personnel who completed the questionnaire, 227 (26%) reported symptoms consistent with depression and 170 (19%) reported symptoms consistent with PTSD. Risk factors associated with PTSD include recovery of bodies, crowd control, assault, and injury to a family member. Depressive symptoms were associated with rare family contact, uninhabitable home, isolation from the NOPD, assault, and injury to a family member. Police personnel reported symptoms of PTSD and depression associated with work-related and personal factors following Hurricane Katrina.

The New Orleans Police Department: Hypertension Project

The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) Hypertension Project was designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of a nurse-operated worksite clinic in identifying and reducing hypertension and related cardiovascular risk factors in a selected group of police department employees. A total of 1,017 individuals (70% of whom were white male police officers) were screened for hypertension and other risk factors. Of these, 129 had hypertension (BP greater than 140/90 mmHg) and were entered into one of four treatment protocols: 1) Comprehensive follow-up (those employees who consented to a history, physical examination, serum chemistry, and electrocardiogram, and subsequent pharmacological protocol treatment by the nurses at NOPD); 2) no medications (those employees with elevated blood pressure who elected not to receive any forms of pharmacotherapy, but agreed to other risk factor reduction; 3) thosewho received treatment by their private physicians; and 4) thosewho refused to participate in the program. The patients were followed for 24 months. In the first group, initial pressure levels of 144/98 were reduced to 129/84 (–15/ –14) mmHg. The second group of individuals, those who received no drugs, demonstrated a pressure reduction from 142/92 to 133/86 (– 9/ –6) mmHg. The third group, those treated by personal physicians, demonstrated little change in pressure (from 151/97 to 149/96 mmHg). Those who refused participation also showed no change in pressure (140/96 mmHg before and after). Risk factor modification occurred in variable percentages for the total population. These data support the concept that professional nurses can participate effectively in hypertension and risk factor modification at the worksite.