NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans Mayor-elect Mitch Landrieu hoped to name a new NOPD Superintendent before his inauguration May 3.
But with two recent guilty pleas by former NOPD commanders in the Danziger Bridge shooting cover-up case, Rafael Goyeneche with the Metropolitan Crime Commission said he thinks the timetable could be delayed.
"That may be overly ambitious,” Goyeneche said, referring to the May 3 deadline.“It's more important to get the right police chief, than to just have a police chief."
The ad for a new NOPD superintendent was only posted Friday on the International Association of Chiefs of Police website, and New Orleans isn't the only big city searching for someone to lead its police department. Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Seattle are conducting national searches too -- adding competition to the process.
A new superintendent may not be the only big change in the coming months. Goyeneche believes there will soon be a federal presence within the department.
It wouldn't be the first time. FBI agents were stationed inside the NOPD Public Integrity Bureau after two high profile police corruption cases were exposed when Richard Pennington was top cop.
"I would think that we will have something above what was in place after Richard Pennington got here, but I don't believe it would rise to the level of a takeover," Goyeneche said. "What we don't wanna see happen -- which would be catastrophic for the city's national image -- would be a takeover of the police department."
That could be avoided, Goyeneche believes, with a strong selection for NOPD superintendent.
But Henry Dean, president of the Fraternal Order of Police's local chapter, worries the Danziger situation could taint the process.
"Some members of the community want no members of this police department included in that search at all, to any degree," Dean said. "I feel that we have some very talented people within the department that would do an excellent job."
Whether the hiring comes from within or the outside, the new chief will face immediate challenges -- something Goyeneche believes could bode well for a turnaround.
"He's gonna know that there are as many as seven civil rights investigations now underway,” Goyeneche said. “So, whoever becomes the chief here, is coming here with open eyes, and the fact that they're willing to accept this position under this climate, is an indication that they are supremely confident in their ability to reform this department, and I think that's a positive for this community."
