By Matt Sledge
The Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Civil Service Commission on Monday approved the Police Department’s controversial proposal to allow its superintendent to promote and demote commanders at will.
The commission voted 4-0 to allow Superintendent Michael Harrison to pick the commanders who run the department’s eight geographic districts and other major divisions. Harrison said the proposal would cement recent reforms made under a consent decree with the federal government.
The OK for the plan came over the objection of all three major police unions. The Civil Service Commission’s staff also had objected to the proposal, saying it represented an end-run around the regular, test-based promotion process for officers.
The commission’s vote will likely change little at the Police Department in the short term, because commanders have been serving at-will on a provisional basis since 2011. However, the vote hands the department what may be its ultimate victory in a long-running dispute with its unions.
Harrison acknowledged that the creation of 16 positions that officers can be promoted to and removed from purely at his discretion is an “exceptional” situation for a department where most officers are protected by strict civil service rules. But he said he needs the flexibility to implement the 2012 consent decree’s reforms.
“Because we work in exceptional times and live in exceptional times, it requires us to make exceptional decisions and take exceptional measures. Anything else is just the status quo, which is exactly why we’re in the nation’s most expansive federal consent decree,” he said.
The Police Department and the Landrieu administration had lined up several business and community leaders to support their position. All expressed confidence in Harrison’s ability to pick good leaders for the department.
“My view is that the job is to protect and serve, and that the protection of citizens is the primary thing in view and that we ought to empower this chief,” said David Crosby, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of New Orleans. “He understands what he needs. He’s saying, ‘This is what I need to protect my citizens to the best of my ability.’ ”
Union supporters said that making commanders subject to the approval of the police superintendent will expose them to politics inside and outside the department.
Peter Hansche, a sergeant in the NOPD’s homicide section who also is vice president of the Police Association of New Orleans, said he has encountered commanders who live in fear of being “defrocked.”
“When I started on the Police Department, captains were godlike figures,” he said. “It’s different now. The commanders that I’ve encountered through working seem scared.”
Several union representatives said Monday that while they respect Harrison, they believe handing the next superintendent the power to remake his top ranks overnight would be unwise.
“The fact is, the chief of police is going to be chief of police for about another year,” said Jim Gallagher, secretary-treasurer of the Fraternal Order of Police. He was referring to the fall election for a new mayor, who could appoint a new police superintendent next year.
Gallagher said the next chief could get rid of many or all of the commanders appointed by Harrison.
“Can you imagine what that does to the rank and file police officers, looking every three years to see the entire management structure, upper and middle, replaced?” he asked.
Commission member Ronald McClain said he also was concerned that the turnover in administrations would result in turnover at the Police Department. He called for an audit in 2018 to see how the system is working, and the commission agreed.
Another commission member said she appreciated the unions’ concerns. Still, she insisted the move will not lead to the loss of civil service positions elsewhere in city government.
“This in no way is a slippery slope. I know we’ve heard that discussion and that worry,” Michelle Craig said. “We do not expect this to be used as precedent for any other office or any other appointing authority, because this is a unique set of circumstances.”
A police union leader said he anticipated mounting a legal challenge to the commission’s vote.
“Yes, we can, and yes, we will,” said Mike Glasser, president of the Police Association of New Orleans.
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©2017 The Advocate, Baton Rouge, La.