New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Warren Riley said Wednesday that he will step down when Mayor Nagin’s second term in office ends.
Riley, who was promoted to superintendent after Eddie Compass stepped down shortly after Hurricane Katrina, also said last week that he will not throw his hat in the upcoming mayoral race but didn’t rule out seeking another office.
“One thing is certain. There is no politician that holds my future in their hands. So, whoever the next mayor is, will be looking for a new chief,” he told WWL-TV. “It won’t be because they’ve removed me. That’s a fact.”
Riley added that he’s not interested in becoming police superintendent of another city or “super sheriff” of New Orleans, although he says he has been contacted by other cities about interviewing for the job of police chief.
Riley assumed the reins of the New Orleans Police Department almost four years ago, guiding the department through a tumultuous period during which criminals were emboldened by the shortage of officers and a depleted population.
Jim Bernazzani headed the local FBI office throughout much of Riley’s tenure.
“I think Warren’s legacy is rebuilding the NOPD to a level that is palatable to the people in the aftermath of the greatest natural or man-made disaster in the history of this country,” Bernazzani told WWL-TV.
“You’re appointed in the fire. And so, trying to put the fire out, by the time you put the fire out it’s two-and-a-half years later and then you have to deal with the issue at hand,” said Norris Henderson, executive director of crime watchdog group, Safe Streets/Strong Communities told WWL-TV.
Riley headed the department during the 2007 anti-violence march on City Hall after the high-profile murders of filmmaker Helen Hill and Hot 8 Brass Band drummer Dinerral Shavers sparked outrage and frustration. He was also forced to deal with the aftermath of several controversial police incidents, including the Danziger Bridge shootings in September 2005, a 2008 police brawl with RTA employees at a Canal Street bar that led to the termination of two cops, and a New Year’s Day 2009 shooting by nine undercover officers of a 22-year-old man, Adolph Grimes III, in Tremé.
The 2007 march and demonstration provided a platform for angry residents who called for the resignations of Chief Riley and Mayor Nagin. Those calls for the two men’s resignations were repeated in January of this year after the brazen robbery and murder of French Quarter bartender Wendy Byrne.
FBI officials seized two computers from the New Orleans Police Department recently in an effort to gather information about the Sept. 4, 2005 Danziger Bridge shootings that injured four men and led to the deaths of 18-year-old James Brissette and 40-year-old Ronald Madison, a mentally retarded man.
The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana and the FBI’s New Orleans office said they would conduct “an independent and thorough review” of the Danziger Bridge incident after Orleans Parish Criminal District Judge Raymond Bigelow, who has since retired, threw out murder and attempted murder charges against seven current and former officers.
After patrolling the streets of New Orleans from August 2005 through January 2006, the National Guard was ordered to return to the city by Gov. Kathleen Blanco after a bloody weekend in June 2006 during which six people were murdered in New Orleans. The National Guard departed in February of this year.
“The next mayor wants to put his label on public safety. That’s gonna be one of the most important issues during the campaign,” Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche told WWL-TV about why he wasn’t surprised by Riley’s announcement.
All three announced mayoral candidates — Austin Badon, Ed Murray and James Perry — have already indicated their plans to conduct a nationwide search for the next police chief.
Nagin spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett said Nagin has no comment on Riley’s announcement.
This article was originally published in the August 17, 2009 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper |
