Tagged: consent decree

Despite objections from the city, a federal judge has approved a sweeping agreement between the Justice Department and the city of New Orleans designed to clean up the city's troubled Police Department.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu had invited Justice Department intervention in the department soon after taking office in 2010 and had sought the agreement as a way of putting reforms into law. But throughout months of negotiations, he had expressed concerns about the potential costs.

A federal judge has signed off on the Justice Department's consent decree to reform the New Orleans Police Department. City officials want more time to work out paying for the changes.

A group representing rank-and-file New Orleans police officers says a scandal spawned by a federal prosecutor's anonymous posts on a newspaper's website has poisoned a sweeping agreement to clean up the city's troubled police department.

A court filing Friday by the Police Association of New Orleans urges U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan to permit the group to intervene in the court-supervised consent decree between the Justice Department and the city.

The New Orleans jail now has a plan to fix its troubled record of inmate violence and staff misconduct. The problem now is how to pay for improvements.