New Orleans police chief resigns post

‘ ANOTHER DIRECTION’

NEW ORLEANS •

New Orleans’ top policeman said yesterday he was stepping down from the heavily criticized force, giving no reason for his decision a month after Hurricane Katrina slammed the city and set off a wave of looting.

“Every man in a leadership position knows when it’s time to hand over reins to someone else. I’ll be retiring as superintendent of police and will be going on in another direction God has for me,” police chief Eddie Compass told reporters.

He did not give any reason and refused to take questions from reporters.

“I will ask you to respect my privacy, respect my decision and just respect my right to be by myself,” he said.

Most of New Orleans was flooded after Katrina came ashore in Louisiana and Mississippi Aug. 29 and breached the levees protecting the city.

While thousands of stranded people waited for days to be rescued, crowds of looters broke into stores and walked out with piles of goods. For the most part, the overwhelmed police force did not try to stop them.

Several hundred police officers deserted or disappeared during the storm, which killed more than 1,000 people. Some were accused of joining in the looting. Two officers committed suicide.

While Supt. Compass and other police officials emphasized that most did their jobs despite losing their homes and not knowing where their families were, the force has come under severe criticism.

Ray Nagin, the city’s Mayor, was also close-mouthed when asked whether Supt. Compass had been pressured to resign.

“It’s like Jim Brown, a great football player, won championships ... at the height of his career, when he had done and accomplished what most only dream of, he decided to retire on top,” Mr. Nagin said.

Lieutenant David Benelli, president of the Police Association of New Orleans, said he was shocked by the resignation.

“We’ve been through a horrendous time,” he said. “ We’ve watched the city we love be destroyed. That is pressure you can’t believe … I think the fact that we did not lose control of the city is a testament to his leadership.”

Supt. Compass’s resignation came the same day the local newspaper the Times-Picayune reported that 249 police officers who failed to turn up for duty after Katrina faced disciplinary hearings.

The police department is trying to sort out which of the missing officers were out-and-out deserters and which had good reasons to be absent without leave. The AWOL officers make up nearly 15% of the city’s total police force of nearly 1,700.

“ We have a penalty schedule for each violation, and when that process takes place, individuals will have the right to appeal the decisions made by the bureau chiefs,” Supt. Compass told the newspaper.

The desertions and how they are dealt with will have important ramifications for the New Orleans Police Department, which already had difficulty recruiting and retaining officers before Katrina.

Those who stayed at their posts during the difficult days that followed the hurricane are unlikely to be happy at working with colleagues who simply ran away.

Supt. Compass has said that nearly all his top commanders rode out the storm and worked superhuman hours during the challenging days that followed. His implication was that the noshows were younger patrol officers, most of whom are assigned to perennially understaffed frontline patrols.

Lt. Benelli said in the Times- Picayune report he thought true deserters should be fired.

“For those who left because of cowardice, they don’t need to be here,” he said. “If you’re a deserter and you deserted your post for no other reason than you were scared, then you left the department and I don’t see any need for you to come back.”

But he believes few of the absent police were in the category.

Although Lt. Benelli gave no examples, other police officers have talked about colleagues who were on leave or vacation when the storm hit and were unable to quickly return to the city.

But the “vast majority of officers stood at their posts despite having to brave the elements and work in very extreme conditions,” Lt. Benelli said. “ We know there were people who flat-out deserted. But we also know there were officers who had to make critical decisions about what to do with their families.”

At a news conference Sept. 5, The Associated Press reported Warren Riley, the city’s deputy police superintendent, said between 400 and 500 officers were unaccounted for.

Some lost their homes and some were looking for their families.

“Some simply left because they said they could not deal with the catastrophe,” he said.