Inspector General critical of NOPD’s ‘stop and question’ methods

Brendan McCarthy / Eyewitness News

NEW ORLEANS –

The New Orleans Office of Inspector General says it can’t tell whether police are racially profiling, or improperly stopping people. That’s because the New Orleans Police Department’s own data collection and record keeping system is flawed.

The inspector general’s report was released Tuesday afternoon, just hours before the city’s police monitor was to issue its own report.

For about two years, Police Monitor Susan Hutson has tried to examine the NOPD’s controversial method of stopping and frisking citizens, and later collecting their personal information – such as tattoos, nicknames or Social Security numbers – on a “field interview card.”

That info is later put into a electronic police database. More than 70,000 people were entered into the system in a recent 12-month period.

The Office of Inspector General tried to analyze the statistics and ultimately determined the NOPD needs to chage how it collects data. Meanwhile, Hutson said her office found issues with the NOPD’s policy and practices regarding field interview cards.

“They were inconsistent with state law and constitutional law,” she said today. “They were missing some elements.”

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