By Missy Wilkinson
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Police Department has inked a contract with a local advertising agency to help recruit new officers as part of the agency’s yearslong effort to increase its ranks, Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick confirmed Thursday.
Brand Society, the firm behind New Orleans & Company’s 2024 tourism campaign, will work with the department to highlight unique aspects of both the city and the job, Capt. Capt. Gwen Nolan said.
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“We did work up a good strategic plan to advertise our diversity,” said Nolan. “And how awesome New Orleans is compared to all the other police departments. ... You haven’t experienced Mardi Gras until you’ve had an NOPD Mardi Gras. And you haven’t worked a murder like a NOLA murder.”
Nolan was named head of recruitment earlier this year, and she’s been researching firms to craft a marketing plan for a department that’s heavy on benefits but light on manpower. Staffing has hovered at around 900 commissioned officers since 2023, and the department has upped starting salaries and enlistment bonuses to help recruit.
Michael Hecht, president of GNO Inc. and spokesperson for The NOLA Coalition, lauded the move. In addition to creating a plan to tackle crime, The NOLA Coalition crafted its own NOPD staffing and retention dashboard, though the group was not involved in the hiring decision.
“I think it is a necessary and good idea that NOPD hires a top-flight marketing firm,” Hecht said. “This is a competitive market where we are not only competing with other options in New Orleans, but we are further competing with other police departments around the country. And we have to get the message out.”
NOPD’s ranks began a steep decline in 2019, hitting a record low of 893 commissioned officers in August 2023 , according to the city’s staffing dashboard. That month, interim Superintendent Michelle Woodfork launched recruiting events at the Baptist Theological Seminary and set an ambitious goal to rebuild the force to 1,200 officers.
Around the same time, the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation — a nonprofit that had managed the department’s employment advertising for a decade — returned that responsibility to NOPD. Kirkpatrick has since reinstated the department’s job postings on Indeed.com, which had lapsed during the handoff, though she notes the platform is “very expensive.”
“We realize (Indeed) is really the biggest player in town,” Kirkpatrick said.
The department has launched 30 digital billboards throughout town and is revamping its website and social media to attract a younger audience. Capitalizing on the success of A&E’s “Homicide Squad New Orleans,” now in its second season, NOPD will offer a Q&A with the show’s detectives at next week’s recruiting event from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Baptist Theological Seminary at 3939 Gentilly Boulevard .
“It gives the outside world a better look as to what we do and how we handle investigations,” said homicide detective Maggie Darling , who makes appearances on the show.
Kirkpatrick says the 33 recruits in NOPD’s new academy class, which launches Monday, along with five lateral transfers — four from Louisiana departments and one from New York — show that recruitment efforts are gaining traction.
Though bolstered staffing has remained the most elusive of her three stated goals for the NOPD — the other two were to tamp down crime and exit federal oversight — Kirkpatrick maintains she won’t compromise on quality.
“We won’t lower standards here,” Kirkpatrick said. “If anything, we’re going to raise standards.”
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