A federal lawsuit filed by a Black New Orleans resident who accuses police officers of making an illegal, racially motivated traffic stop last year is raising new concerns about quasi-public neighborhood security districts formed under state law.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of Bilal Hankins by the ACLU of Louisiana accuses officers working for the Hurstville Security and Neighborhood Improvement District of pulling over a car driven by Hankins, who had two friends with him. Hankins had previously sought the help of one of the officers, Kevin Wheeler, in a search for a lost dog.
Wheeler and Officer Ramon Pierre are accused in the complaint of questioning Hankins and his two friends at gunpoint and accusing them of lying about the lost dog, which was found the following day, according to the lawsuit. A third supervising officer, Lt. Carl Perilloux, is also listed as a defendant.
Nora Ahmed is the ACLU of Louisiana's legal director.
| ACLU of Louisiana
“No reasonable suspicion justified the stop of Bilal and his friends – especially given that Bilal and his friends voluntarily approached defendant Wheeler first and asked for help,” the complaint states, adding that officers threatened lethal force. “... Bilal and his friends will suffer trauma from this event for the rest of their lives.”
The ACLU of Louisiana also expressed concern that the two law enforcement members directly involved in the traffic stop were off-duty officers who were working for the Hurstville security district.
“They were off-duty, working a ‘paid detail’ as security patrol officers in an affluent neighborhood where residents have self-imposed a tax to pay for their own security force, with minimal vetting or oversight,” the ACLU of Louisiana’s legal director, Nora Ahmed, told the Louisiana Record in an email.
With so many police agencies or security districts in place, officers who are fired or required to resign for misconduct at one agency can easily find policing jobs at another, according to the complaint.
“These types of security districts are a danger to community members because they’re known to operate with scant policy or accountability, often loosely answering only to the neighborhood board,” Ahmed said.
The combination of unregulated authority and decentralized organizations formed the backdrop to the alleged racial profiling of Hankins, she said.
Wheeler is employed by the Orleans Levee District Police, while Pierre works for the Housing Authority of New Orleans, according to the complaint, which was filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
State law allows for the formation of security districts as a way to improve crime prevention and enhance public safety in communities.