New Orleans, Justice Dept. Still Picking Out Contractor for Police Monitoring

The hell is taking so long?

A 10-member committee — made up of five representatives from City Hall and five from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) — began meeting in the Superdome in early March to select a firm that will monitor the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) under the recently enacted federal consent decree. Hiring the monitor may not seem as important as the nuts and bolts of the decree itself, but in many ways, the monitor is the most important piece of the puzzle.

The monitor's contract is worth at least $7 million over four years — one of the city's biggest expenses for implementing the consent decree — and the winning firm will help determine whether the consent decree is working as promised.