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New Orleans police chief resigning
Move follows disclosure that many officers left posts during Katrina
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:09 p.m. ET Sept. 27, 2005
NEW ORLEANS - Police Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned Tuesday after four turbulent weeks in which the police force came under fire for its conduct in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
“I served this department for 26 years and have taken it through some of the toughest times of its history. Every man in a leadership position must know when it’s time to hand over the reins,” Compass said at a news conference. “I'll be going on in another direction that God has for me.”
Neither Compass nor Mayor Ray Nagin would say whether Compass was pressured to resign.
“He leaves the apartment in pretty good shape and with a significant amount of leadership,” Nagin said.
Earlier in the day, the department said that about 250 police officers — roughly 15 percent of the force — could face discipline for leaving their posts without permission during Katrina and its aftermath.
Lt. David Benelli, president of the Police Association of New Orleans, the union for rank-and-file officers, said true deserters should be fired.
“For those who left because of cowardice, they don’t need to be here,” Benelli told The Times-Picayune in Tuesday’s edition. “If you’re a deserter and you deserted your post for no other reason than you were scared, then you left the department and I don’t see any need for you to come back.”
But Benelli said he believes only a small fraction of the officers will wind up being deserters.
“We know there were people who flat-out deserted,” he said. “But we also know there were officers who had to make critical decisions about what to do with their families.
At a news conference Sept. 5, Deputy Police Superintendent Warren Riley had said between 400 and 500 officers on the 1,600-member police force were unaccounted for.
Each case will be investigated to determine whether the officer was truly a deserter or had legitimate reasons to be absent, Riley said.
Some lost their homes and some are looking for their families. “Some simply left because they said they could not deal with the catastrophe,” Riley said.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
© 2005 MSNBC.com
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9503273/[/b][/quote]
Move follows disclosure that many officers left posts during Katrina
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:09 p.m. ET Sept. 27, 2005
NEW ORLEANS - Police Superintendent Eddie Compass resigned Tuesday after four turbulent weeks in which the police force came under fire for its conduct in Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath.
“I served this department for 26 years and have taken it through some of the toughest times of its history. Every man in a leadership position must know when it’s time to hand over the reins,” Compass said at a news conference. “I'll be going on in another direction that God has for me.”
Neither Compass nor Mayor Ray Nagin would say whether Compass was pressured to resign.
“He leaves the apartment in pretty good shape and with a significant amount of leadership,” Nagin said.
Earlier in the day, the department said that about 250 police officers — roughly 15 percent of the force — could face discipline for leaving their posts without permission during Katrina and its aftermath.
Lt. David Benelli, president of the Police Association of New Orleans, the union for rank-and-file officers, said true deserters should be fired.
“For those who left because of cowardice, they don’t need to be here,” Benelli told The Times-Picayune in Tuesday’s edition. “If you’re a deserter and you deserted your post for no other reason than you were scared, then you left the department and I don’t see any need for you to come back.”
But Benelli said he believes only a small fraction of the officers will wind up being deserters.
“We know there were people who flat-out deserted,” he said. “But we also know there were officers who had to make critical decisions about what to do with their families.
At a news conference Sept. 5, Deputy Police Superintendent Warren Riley had said between 400 and 500 officers on the 1,600-member police force were unaccounted for.
Each case will be investigated to determine whether the officer was truly a deserter or had legitimate reasons to be absent, Riley said.
Some lost their homes and some are looking for their families. “Some simply left because they said they could not deal with the catastrophe,” Riley said.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
© 2005 MSNBC.com
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9503273/[/b][/quote]
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