A draft set of recommendations by police consultant Fausto Pichardo calls for the immediate redeployment of 212 New Orleans police officers from current assignments to patrol duty, a drastic move described as necessary “to save the city,” WVUE Fox 8 reports. “Action must be taken NOW if there is ever a chance to save the city and bring the reputation of being a city where tourists can come to party and celebrate and not become victims,” Pichardo wrote. “The residents of New Orleans ... also need and deserve to have a police force that can make them feel safe and be there for them every time they call 911.”
Pichardo, who formerly headed the patrol division of the New York Police Department, was hired by Mayor LaToya Cantrell for at least a six-month term as a consultant working to revamp Superintendent Shaun Ferguson’s police department. Pichardo and retired NYPD assistant chief Thomas Conforti made 50 recommendations. Some of them already have been implemented among a series of recruitment and retention reforms announced by Cantrell and Ferguson. A police spokesman said other recommendations by Pichardo will not necessarily be adopted. The spokesman said the draft’s reference to 212 commissioned officers who could be reassigned to patrol work “is much higher than what is actually being considered. ... the number is more in the range of 75-100.”