NOPD history

In May 1924, the Bureau came under the leadership of a young J. Edgar Hoover, who quickly began a systematic reform of the organization.

A few months before war even broke out in 1939, the division assigned one agent exclusively to espionage and sabotage cases because of the many military and naval facilities in the New Orleans area.

All told, New Orleans agents have arrested eight Top Ten Fugitives since 1953.

On April 28, 1964, New Orleans investigators captured Joseph Francis Bryan, Jr., who had been added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list just two weeks earlier.

After a white officer was killed in November 1980, mobs of police officers went on a rampage in Algiers, a black section of town, killing four and injuring as many as fifty residents.

In 1984, New Orleans spearheaded counterterrorism preparations for the World’s Fair that was held in the city.

History repeated itself on March 22, 1990, when Adolph Archie, an African-American, was accused of killing a white officer, Earl Hauck, during a shootout downtown.

17 In 1991, the International Association of Chiefs of Police recommended the creation of an early warning system, another recommendation ignored by the police department until quite recently.

New York City established their current Civilian Complaint Review Board in 1993 with subpoena powers and the power to recommend discipline in confirmed cases of police misconduct.

Mayor Marc Morial - who was elected in 1994, in part to clean up the department - appointed former Washington, D.C. assistant chief of police Richard Pennington as an outsider reformer.

Another serious criminal case brought to successful conclusion by New Orleans began in Michigan in 1995.

After the Abner Louima case in 1997, the board received increased funding.

From the OPA’s creation in 1999, contact with the OPA’s office has increased steadily, but overall citizens’ complaints and contact with the OPA have regarded less serious offenses.

In July 2000, the growing number of counterterrorism cases led the division to create a Joint Terrorism Task Force with other federal, state, and local partner agencies.

Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, in 2006 James Carter was elected to the first New Orleans City Council seated after the storm.

On July 10, 2008, the ordinance creating the Independent Police Monitor’s Office was passed unanimously by the New Orleans City Council and signed into law by Mayor C. Ray Nagin on July 18, 2008.

On August 11, 2009, the first Police Monitor and Deputy Monitor were appointed, and the OIPM began operations period.

The HPD Bicycle Patrol begins on May 10, 2017.