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This was the first of a series of town hall meetings to
spread the word of the changes Police Chief Pennington and his staff were making in the
police department. Our idea was to put the word on the street in a grass-roots fashion,
similar to the principle of community policing. There were radical changes taking place,
and we wanted to get our message out. -Mayor Marc H. Morial Police Reform Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I want to thank all of you for coming out, most of you on very, very short notice. Tonight's Safe City Town Hall Meeting is part of our ongoing effort to involve the citizens of New Orleans in, not only the fight against crime, but also in the efforts to improve the New Orleans Police Department. Today is a special day in our history. A day which marks a new beginning for the New Orleans Police Department. It is also a day which marks, I hope, the beginning of a new relationship between the department and all of our community. To change the department, to make it better, to make the city safer, is going to take more than Superintendent Pennington, his new deputy chiefs and all of the men and women who serve on the department. It's going to take all of us. It's going to take all of us to be active and working out there in our communities. Today was a historic day, a historic day which marked the most significant set of changes proposed for the New Orleans Police Department in many, many generations. Superintendent Pennington came to us about 90 days ago. And I want to let you know, he doesnot come as a savior, because there is no savior here on Earth. He comes as a dedicated person, someone who gives us the best hope, I think, and the best opportunity to turn this department around. Last year was a tough year for murders. Too many people died in this community. One thing I fear is that we are becoming numb to crime. We get to a point where it is so commonplace that we turn our heads away, we turn our minds away and we turn our hearts away. We don't exhibit the kind of resolve necessary to make the city safe. In 1995, we need each of you to make a renewed personal commitment to do whatever you can to make this community safe. This town meeting is the first in a series of efforts we will undertake to get citizens involved. We will have activities designed to get the men and women in this department and all of the people in this community to come together so that each of us knows how to fight crime in this city. And by the same token, so that each of us knows about the changes that have been proposed in the New Orleans Police Department. The superintendent is going to talk and outline for you everything he talked about today before the City Council. But I want to make a number of observations that I think are very important. We wanted to do this because we need your support to make these changes work. No doubt, there are going to be those who oppose these changes. But based on the feedback we have received, I think the overwhelming majority of people of this city and the men and women on the department welcome this new, fresh beginning. The superintendent has implemented one change that I think will be an area of considerable public discussion - changes in the outside detail system. I want to comment on it for two reasons. Number one, if we let a discussion of outside details become the focus of public debate, we are making a mistake. Because outside details are secondary employment. Our focus needs to be on primary employment, and primary employment is what the men and women who serve us on the department do when they are working for all of us. That's where the focus of the changes, the focus of our discussion and the focus of our intention ought to be. Number two, we have looked at the experiences of every major American city when it comes to secondary employment. No city had a freewheeling, unrestricted system like New Orleans. No city. The superintendent believes strongly that men and women should be able to do secondary employment, because it gives them an opportunity to enhance their pay and creates an added presence of our men and women out there in the neighborhoods. But, he feels that sensible restrictions are necessary. We ask you to support those efforts, and more importantly, we want you to know why. We want you to know why because a public servants' primary mission is working for you and I, the people of New Orleans. It ought to be first, but sometimes it isn't. As you know, we have had to attack corruption. A new unit, the Public Integrity Division, is separated away from the New Orleans Police Department. It's going to be operated in a much different fashion. We want a place where citizens can bring their complaints and have them treated in a fair and adequate fashion. This superintendent, I think, has demonstrated that he will not tolerate corruption and he will not tolerate anything less than the best for the New Orleans Police Department. When his disciplinary hammer, if you will, when it falls and ends someone's employment, it hurts. But the department's ultimate mission is to protect all of us. And I want you to know that I strongly support and will back Superintendent Pennington's efforts to make the department better by weeding out those officers who deserve it. That is going to be the new way, in this new day. Again, we ask for you to support those efforts with your voices. Because change happens on the street level, which leads us to community policing. It involves all of us. Community policing involves everyone in this community who is involved in the fight against crime. When anyone of us turns his head, doesn't get involved, says it doesn't matter, he is aiding and abetting the problem. Make no mistake about it. If we want a safer community, if we want a police department that is not corrupt, if we want a police department that respects the individual rights and liberties of citizens in this community, if we want a better New Orleans, we have to be involved in that fight each and every day. I want to introduce Superintendent Pennington and acknowledge the presence of four members of our City Council. They will have an opportunity to make some remarks. I want to tell them in front of all you that I thank them for their support of many of our efforts since we took office. Their support and their leadership have been very important to everything that we are going to do and everything that we have done. A united government is necessary to make change, and we're going to work hard to insure that this government stays united. Ladies and gentlemen, join me in welcoming Superintendent Richard Pennington. |
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