NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Independent Police Monitor issued an 11-page report in January on important considerations in selecting a police chief.
The report, covering topics from leadership qualities to “interview questions for chief candidates” was sent with the selection of a new NOPD superintendent in mind.
But Police Monitor Stella Cziment said not only was her office left off the “external stakeholder” interview panel, but her report was largely ignored and her push for more community representation appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
While the business community and police associations are well represented alongside a faith leader, a former city attorney and the New Orleans Fire Chief, none of the 11 outside stakeholders would be considered a grass-roots community member.
“There's a lot of stakeholders that aren't represented on this panel,” Cziment said. “We could have played a helpful role.”
Cziment said people who already work closely the NOPD would have been ideal for the interview panel, such as representatives of the city's eight Community Police Advisory Boards. But they were shut out.
“The community should be a well-tapped resource and solution to the problems that we're facing. And instead, they're not in the room,” she said.
lso overlooked in the process were representatives from the district attorney’s and public defenders’ offices. Or people from the city distinct ethnic minority groups.
“There's no one on that panel that I know of that speaks Spanish or Vietnamese,” Cziment said. “Right there, that is limiting the ability of those communities to have their unique experiences heard.”
The interviews with four candidates took nearly the entire day Thursday at Gallier Hall. The panel will pick up again on Friday with the final two candidates, including interim Chief Michelle Woodfork, the presumed front-runner.
City Councilman Oliver Thomas, who represents District E, is the lone city council member on the panel. But other council members expressed concerns about the panel and the process.
“Probably having someone who represents the city as a whole would have also have been a good idea,” District A Councilman Joe Giarrusso said.
Council President J.P. Morrell could have been a citywide voice from the legislative branch. But he’s on the outside looking in. From that perch, he said he’s already hearing concerns about how the list of applicants was narrowed from 33 to the six semi-finalists.
“It's almost like there was a concentrated effort to pick people who would be less qualified than the mayor's preferred candidate,” Morrell said.