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NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The city has fired 60 police officers and suspended more than 25 others who didn't show up for duty in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the city's police chief said Thursday as officials worked their way through a long list of disciplinary hearings. Most of the fired officers, 51 of them, were let go before the hearings began, Police Chief Warren Riley said. The 228 officers now involved in the disciplinary hearings left New Orleans without permission in the days after the hurricane hit, the chief told The Associated Press in an interview. "They did return....

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Warren Riley, sworn in as the New Orleans police chief a week ago, began revamping the department on Monday. The moves came as Riley works to help the department shake off the scandals that followed Hurricane Katrina — including desertion by some officers, thefts by some and charges of brutality that included the beating of a man that was captured by an Associated Press television crew. "We're trying to make the department more responsive and more efficient," Riley said. Capt. Steven Nichols, formerly in charge of technical services, was moved to assistant superintendent, the post Riley...

FEDS ASKING TOUGH QUESTIONS OF NOPD: INDICTMENTS PREDICTED XXXX DECEMBER 03, 2005 5:27 PM **EXCLUSIVE! MUST CREDIT THE DEAD PELICAN!** In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Feds are asking a number of very specific questions of the NOPD, source tell The Dead Pelican. Among the questions that the Feds are asking, one stands out: "Where are all these officers that we were paying you for?" As reported earlier, it is widely known that NOPD's real troop strength has never been more than approximately 1000 commissioned officers but the "official" number (that is, the number given out by the Superintendent's...

**EXCLUSIVE** New details are surfacing concerning New Orleans' former Superintendent of Police, Eddie "the hat" Compass, sources tell The Dead Pelican. Compass' abrupt resignation from NOPD was, according to sources, brought about by a number of factors that were rapidly approaching critical mass. In other words, the situation had reached a level at which things can no longer be concealed, hushed up or downplayed without calling in too many favors or costing too much money. In other words, Ray Nagin wasn't about to risk his political career to cover up for Compass any more than he already had without implicating...

Police trying to raise money with arrests, says driver 07:39 AM CST on Wednesday, November 23, 2005 Bob Greene / WWL-TV Reporter Scott Aertker never imagined his drive home from work last Friday evening would go so wrong so fast, when he was arrested for what he called minor traffic violations that should have only resulted in a ticket. WWL-TV Scott Aertker claims police arrested him for minor traffic violations and added additional charges after he was transported to jail for booking. Aertker has since become one of many New Orleans to have complained of unfair treatment by city police....

A former New Orleans police officer is facing federal charges for allegedly driving a vehicle looted from a Cadillac dealership across state lines. Willie Earl Bickham Jr., 36, was charged with felony interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle after his arrest in Houston, U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said Wednesday. Bickham, who resigned from the police department the week after Hurricane Katrina, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Houston police said Bickham admitted taking the truck. Letten said crossing state lines in a stolen vehicle threw the matter into his jurisdiction. The federal government is trying to send...

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — An internal investigation within the Baton Rouge Police Department triggered by complaints from out-of-state law enforcement agencies that helped with storm detail has concluded that city officers did not break the law, police say. But violations of department policies and procedures were found, authorities said Monday. During a news conference, Police Chief Jeff LeDuff would not say what prompted New Mexico State Police and Michigan State Police to refuse to patrol with his officers after Hurricane Katrina. He said only that "nothing was found to be criminal" and that "everything involved policy and procedure." In...

Police this morning arrested a former New Orleans police officer believed to have deserted the force during the hurricane crisis, officials said. The unidentified man, who was driving a stolen car, was pulled over during some kind of traffic stop in the 10300 block of the North Freeway around 11 a.m., said Sgt. Nate McDuell. When approached by police, the man, who had a firearm, identified himself as a New Orleans police officer, McDuell said. Authorities learned, however, that the man was no longer an officer for the New Orleans Police Department because he had quit his job in lieu...

Jeff Crouere says, among other things, this: …Business owners are complaining that looting is continuing in many areas of the city, even with so few people in New Orleans. If crimes are being committed with a reduced population, assistance from other police forces and the National Guard, what is going to happen when more people come back to the city and all this help leaves? It could be that there is a severe lack of officers. Beside the 249 who have been dismissed for desertion, there are allegations surfacing that hundreds more are on the payroll as “phantom officers,” people...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Eddie Compass, who resigned as the New Orleans police chief four weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city, will work as a security consultant for a hotel group. Compass said he had numerous job offerings before deciding to take the position with New Orleans Fine Hotels, a collection of 11 hotels in the city's historic districts. Compass' resignation from the police department was unexpected, although the force had been wracked by desertions and disorganization in Katrina's aftermath. As the city slipped into anarchy during the first few days after Katrina, the 1,700-member police department saw many...

Inside Hurricane Katrina []Tuesday, November 1, 2005, at 9P August 29, 2005: Hurricane Katrina, a category four hurricane, hits land and storms across Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana leaving in her wake a trail of devastation. Now, in this two-hour special, the National Geographic Channel will take viewers onan in depth examination of Katrina and uncovers the decisions and circumstances that impacted countless Gulf of Mexico residents. Why were so many people left in the path of the storm and why was the response so delayed? Also airs: Wednesday, November 2, 12A Wednesday, November 2, 8:00P NOPD after KarinaPremieres Tuesday, November...

NEW ORLEANS - Fifty-one members of the New Orleans Police Department — 45 officers and six civilian employees — were fired Friday for abandoning their posts before or after Hurricane Katrina. "They were terminated due to them abandoning the department prior to the storm," acting superintendent Warren Riley said. "They either left before the hurricane or 10 to 12 days after the storm and we have never heard from them." Police were unable to account for 240 officers on the 1,450-member force following Katrina. The force has been investigating them to see if they left their posts during the storm....

Fifty-one members of the New Orleans Police Department -- 45 officers and six civilian employees -- were fired Friday for abandoning their posts before or after Hurricane Katrina. "They were terminated due to them abandoning the department prior to the storm," acting superintendent Warren Riley said. "They either left before the hurricane or 10 to 12 days after the storm and we have never heard from them." Police were unable to account for 240 officers on the 1,450-member force following Katrina. The force has been investigating them to see if they left their posts during the storm. The mass firing...

Fifty-one members of the New Orleans Police Department, 45 officers and six civilian employees, were fired Friday for abandoning their posts before or after Hurricane Katrina. "They were terminated due to them abandoning the department prior to the storm," acting superintendent Warren Riley said. "They either left before the hurricane or 10 to 12 days after the storm and we have never heard from them." Police were unable to account for 240 officers on the 1,450-member force following Katrina. The force has been investigating them to see if they left their posts during the storm.

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans police have long had a reputation for violence and corruption. Three officers were convicted of civil rights violations in a trial moved to a Dallas federal court after a police rampage through the West Bank neighborhood of Algiers in 1980 left four civilians dead and 50 injured. The incident was sparked by the slaying of a police officer. Ten years later, a man accused of killing an officer in a shootout was fatally beaten shortly after being taken into custody. The city settled a civil rights lawsuit filed by the man's family, but no officers...

DALLAS -- The Dallas Police Department's search for a few good men and women continues, but the department is also turning down several candidates who moved to North Texas in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Background investigations revealed some of the candidates deserted their posts and evacuated New Orleans when they were needed most.Deputy Chief Floyd Simpson said those are not the kind of officers that the city of Dallas is looking for. "In law enforcement, in the military, deserting your post is considered, well, it's not a good thing," said Simpson. The Dallas Police Department insists all new recruits...

10/25/2005, 10:33 a.m. CT The Associated Press NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two civilians have been arrested in the investigation into whether police stole almost 200 cars from a New Orleans Cadillac dealership during Hurricane Katrina, the Louisiana Attorney General's Office said Tuesday. The investigation is continuing and arrests of police officers have not been ruled out, Kris Wartelle, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Charles Foti, said. No details of the arrests were made public. More information was to be released Tuesday afternoon. The attorney general is investigating allegations that New Orleans police made off with nearly 200 cars — including...

Desertions, allegations of looting and theft, and the videotaped beating of a retired teacher have contributed to a growing sense that the New Orleans Police Department is reverting to its dirty-cop past at the very moment the city is desperately trying to persuade residents to come back to the Big Easy. No hard evidence exists of a rise in police misconduct since Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 29. But the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana said it is investigating at least 10 brutality complaints filed in the past month or so. And stories are making the rounds at Uptown...

10:18 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Mary Foster / Associated Press The Cadillac dealership that was allegedly cleaned out by police during Hurricane Katrina is still missing over 100 vehicles, and the general manager wants the U.S. attorney to investigate. "It needs to be handled by the Justice Department," Doug Stead said Tuesday. "... I think right now we've got cops looking for cops." The state attorney general is investigating allegations New Orleans police made off with nearly 200 cars -- including 41 new Cadillacs -- as the hurricane closed in. The investigation is still under way, a...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Plywood covering Terry Knister's back door had been pulled off, the stained-glass window smashed. Knister could see the alarm panel had been ripped from inside his home and he feared a burglar could still be there. So, innately, he let his fingers make those three keystrokes: 9-1-1. Trouble was, no one was willing to help. All he was given by police was an incident number for insurance purposes. No officers were dispatched. Police say they can't explain Knister's experience and they say it's an exception. But as this devastated city repopulates, and the number of military...