New Orleans LA February 18 2019 As the New Orleans Police Department continues to build up its ranks, the department is also seeking to grow its reserve unit. The invitation to apply this year to a new NOPD Reserve Police Academy has been extended to civilians, who would be able to help officers in a limited capacity, NOPD said.

The NOPD Reserve Police Unit, now comprised of about 80 trained officers, provides a low-to-no cost way for the city to help staff special events, the unit’s commander, Louis Dabdoub, said. It also gives retired officers or people with a passion for law enforcement with a NOPD side-gig while opening up the option for some part-time police officers to work private paid detail jobs.

This summer, NOPD will host the first academy for the Reserve Police Unit the agency has had in 15 years, Dabdoub said.

The city is limited by budget constraints and difficulty recruiting enough hirable applicants as full-time officers, Dabdoub said. Since “special events” in the city range from a month-long Carnival season, New Orleans Saints games and festivals celebrating jazz heritage, creole tomatoes and tacos, “working those events is a strain on resources sometimes,” Dabdoub said.

“(Reserves) are a force multiplier for a city that is much in need of officers … without having to pay people full-time to cover events.”

The reserve academy will train three types of reserve officers or volunteers: Level 1 reserves are commissioned officers with the authority of regular police officers; Level 2 reserves are commissioned officers with less training who must be accompanied by another officer; and Level 3 reserves are civilians who are not commissioned officers but can help direct traffic or guard barricades during Mardi Gras, for example, under the direction of officers.

Unpaid reserve officers or civilians are required to volunteer 24 hours a month on a schedule that suits them. Reserve officers who volunteer 40 hours a month are eligible to work off-duty details through the city’s Office of Secondary Employment.

As of Feb. 6, NOPD employed 1,176 commissioned officers, plus 45 recruits, NOPD spokesman Aaron Looney said. That’s down from the 2010 staffing level that surpassed 1,500 officers during its peak.

A citywide hiring freeze implemented in 2010 by Mayor Mitch Landrieu, which Landrieu said was implemented to reign in the city’s budget, stalled NOPD recruitment, prompting a sharp reduction of the force as officers retired or left the department. Later in Landrieu’s term, NOPD ramped up recruitment and the mayor at one time stated a goal of reaching 1,600 officers by 2020 – a goal that now appears unattainable. A 2016 staffing analysis the city paid Berkshire Advisors $225,000 to conduct, however, advised the police department should be staffed at a slightly lower number of sworn officers: roughly 1,400.

The end of 2018 marked the first time in six years the police department was staffed by more than 1,200 officers and recruits.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell has not publicly stated a NOPD staffing goal, though she advocated during her campaign to add to NOPD’s ranks. Melanie Talia, CEO of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, said the department’s goal is to hire 120 recruits in 2019. The foundation is providing NOPD’s recruitment efforts with funding technical assistance.

If achieved, the 2019 academy graduates should provide a double digit net increase of commissioned offers. In 2019, NOPD lost 76 officers or recruits in 2018 to resignations, retirements or terminations – the lowest attrition in more than two decades, according to data from the department. The NOPD lost 78 officers or recruits the year before, down from 103 departures in 2016, NOPD said. Police labor groups credited the lower attrition rate to a new pay system, implemented in October 2017, that included raises for officers. The department has also pointed to surveys of officers that show most are happy with the direction in which the department is headed.

The reserve unit can function as a recruitment tool, too, Dabdoub said, allowing those unsure if they want to pursue law enforcement full time to test out the profession.

Level 1 reserve officers are fully commissioned and required to complete Peace Officer Standards and Training, often referred to as POST. In addition, Level 1 reserve officers must complete training related to NOPD’s federal consent decree, which the department has been operating under since 2013 to correct unconstitutional policing practices. The training would take about seven months, which would entail classes two nights a week and on Saturdays, Dabdoub said. Level 1 reserve officers who volunteer 40 hours a month with NOPD would qualify for most off-duty private details, which they can perform without another officer present. Details are coordinated through the New Orleans Office of Secondary Employment.

Level 2 reserve officers are fully commissioned and POST certified officers who received additional training on the consent decree, but have not yet completed the extra training. Level 2 officers cannot work alone and must be with a fully trained NOPD officer. These officers can work private details only with other officers.

To become a Level 1 or Level 2 reserve officer, applicants must be 21 by the time they complete their training and pass a drug and background check. Level 1 and Level 2 reserve officers receive a uniform allowance. The uniforms appear the same; the only difference in appearance is reserve officers’ badges contain five digits, and full-time officers’ and supervisors badges contain at least four digits, Dabdoub said.

Level 3 civilian volunteers must complete 24 hours of training, one night a week for about three weeks, Dabdoub said. Level 3 reserves wear dark navy uniforms and can work barricades or help direct traffic at special events under the direction of other NOPD officers. Applicants must be 18 years old and must pass a drug and background check.

NOPD’s reserve unit started in the 1960s as a group of non-commissioned volunteers, referred to then as “auxiliaries,” Dabdoub said. He described the initiative then as an early version of the community policing movement. In the 1970s, some auxiliaries obtained Police Officer Standards and Training certification and operated as limited-authority officers, mostly for special assignments like Mardi Gras parades and festivals. About 1980, NOPD graduated its first reserve academy, he said. The unit built up in the 1980s to about 280 commissioned reserve officers.

Up until about four years ago, Dabdoub said, the number of reserve officers had dwindled to a few dozen, until NOPD invited any commissioned officers, mostly retirees, to join the reserve unit. With the invitation in 2015 encouraging retirees to join the reserve unit, NOPD attracted a total of about 100 reserve officers. That number has since dwindled to about 80, most of which are retired officers or those who attended the last reserve academy NOPD hosted, about 15 years ago, he said.

The current crop of reserve officers include people with a variety of backgrounds – among them are a doctor, a stay-at-home mother and a daiquiri shop owner, Dabdoub said.

The reserve academy set to start this summer has room for 50 recruits, he said.

NOPD has asked those seekng more information about the Reserve Police Academy to visit joinNOPD.org or contact Troy McConnell at 504-401-3413 of tpmcconnell@nola.gov.

 

NOLA.com

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