Mike Perlstein / Eyewitness News
NEW ORLEANS -- Eyewitness News has uncovered documents showing a large chunk of lucrative police details are controlled by just three officers at NOPD headquarters, as the department struggles to reform the detail system.
"As of this date from January 1 of 2011, we have had 248 permitted events,” said Lt. Joseph Valiente.
Valiente is referring to those events that require a special city permit, a process that he handles full-time with two other officers. But a close inspection of special events records reveals many of the problems identified by the U.S. Justice Department as potential sources of corruption.
For example, Valiente and his staff, Sgt. Walter Powers and Officer Ross Bourgeois, assign themselves to 60 percent of the events they permit.
"On 60 percent of the details we've had since Jan. 1, one of us is represented on this,” Valiente said. “Remember, we're the primary point of contact. We have the most information. Each one of these is custom-made."
Valiente said they assign other paid detail positions to officers with special training - on motorcycles or horses - but the records show some officers appear on the details repeatedly, including Valiente's friends and ranking superiors.
"Their assignment basically is the feeder system for their details. And there's a very close-knit cluster of officers that are monopolizing all the details that are generated out of the permitting office," said Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission.
Goyeneche was critical of the NOPD's detail system long before the Justice Department's scathing report. He said the ability of someone like Valiente to dole out choice assignments to friends on the force, including his superiors, needs to be changed.
"It is not equally and evenly distributed. It is tightly controlled by a small cadre of police officers for their own personal benefit,” Goyeneche said. “And that's inherently wrong."
While many officers we talked to described Valiente's position as a lucrative plum job, both in money and influence, the lieutenant doesn't see it that way. He said that last year, he made about $18,000 from the details he controls, plus another $10,000 in overtime.
"I am grateful that I do have this extra income, but I'm nowhere near the top by any means," Valiente said.
Even so, Valiente is bracing for the reform of the detail system that was already put in motion last month with Chief Ronal Serpas' blueprint for an overhaul. That plan calls for an elimination of detail coordinators, giving all officers equal access to the jobs, and prohibiting lower ranking officers from lining up details for higher rank.
"Whether or not the policies have to be changed, again, that's not for me to determine,” Valiente said.
The special events office has often been praised for its smooth handling of major parades and other high-profile events, but hundreds of smaller details are diverted directly to the French Quarter's 8th Police District, where a single patrol officer has become one of the busiest detail brokers on the force.
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