The New Orleans police chief will reinstate the promotion list

New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said late Wednesday that she would resume the promotional list for captains and majors that she and Mayor LaToya Cantrell recently paused. Kirkpatrick said the process will be changed to include outside evaluators.

Kirkpatrick, who has been in the role for a year, said she is making progress on a revised NOPD promotion protocol that would address complaints of bias. The change comes after a wave of criticism from officer groups and others after Kirkpatrick told candidates she was opting out of promotional rankings and later said the mayor was behind the move.

“I’m glad to know we have a path forward, and I think we’re going to be talking about a long-term solution,” Kirkpatrick said at a hastily called news conference outside Gallier Hall. “The mayor and I are step by step in this process.”

This month, Kirkpatrick told 33 officers who had qualified for the higher ranks of majors and captains that her decision to halt promotions was based on complaints about the subjectivity of the grading system.

Soon, the New Orleans Police Association and the Black Police Organization filed a civil service complaint accusing the mayor of “political patronage and political interference in the civil service system.”

“I want to strip those opportunities away from anyone who would even try to attack other people,” Kirkpatrick said Wednesday. “It’s by making sure that the process is so lawful that no one can make a… attack.”

Per city policy, the grading system attributes half of a candidate’s points to an officer’s scores on the civil service exam. The second half is divided into four criteria: prior evaluations, interview with deputy chiefs, disciplinary history and employment history.

Kirkpatrick said this last set of criteria would be reassessed by external assessors, but civil service exam scores would remain for those candidates.

She previously told these candidates that she wanted to “go back to the drawing board” with the retest. Many people on the list were nervous about taking another exam and waiting to advance to the next year.

Kirkpatrick said the complaints led her to push for the change.

Records show that on September 25, Cantrell’s chief administrative officer, Gilbert Montaño, waived the policy governing “the procedure for promotion to classified non-civilian positions (as part of official duties)” two days after the final lists were made available to candidates.

Shortly afterward, a video sent to The Times-Picayune showed Kirkpatrick announcing the change. She cited a history of complaints of favoritism and a desire to move away from internal decision-making on promotions.

This round of promotions caused “reflex and fear,” Kirkpatrick said at the time.

On Wednesday, Kirkpatrick said she intends to streamline the process to make it more objective while still complying with mandates under the federal consent decree that governs the NOPD.

Jonathan Aronie, the chief monitor of the consent decrees, said he would soon submit a report on his investigation into the withheld promotions.

Kirkpatrick said Wednesday that U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan, who has overseen NOPD reforms for 12 years, recently granted her discretion to change the process.

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