New Orleans, Feds Unveil Sweeping Police Reforms

The Justice Department and the city of New Orleans yesterday unveiled an $11 million, 492-point plan to clean up the city's notorious police department, in what Eric Holder called the most sweeping such reform the federal government had ever been involved with. For the next four years, the NOPD will be under federal oversight, as officers undergo training on use of force, searches and arrests, bias-free policing, and more, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports.

Recording equipment will now monitor all police vehicles, and a special team will look into all instances of use of force, among many, many other reforms. The consent decree spills out of last year's incredibly damning federal investigation, and comes after intense negotiations in which the city eventually agreed to pick up the entire tab. Despite the cost, Mayor Mitch Landrieu was beaming with pride, calling change necessary given the "sheer thuggery, thievery, and callous disregard for the truth" some officers displayed after Hurricane Katrina. (More New Orleans stories.)