New Orleans officials are advancing efforts to retain and recruit police officers in the wake of an advisory opinion issued by the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office concluding that the mayor’s lump-sum pay plan for law enforcement is legal.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell has proposed the idea of offering police officers $5,000 for their service every five years. She sought the opinion of Attorney General Jeff Landry about whether such a program would amount to a prohibited donation of public funds under the state constitution.
In his June 1 opinion, Landry found that the retention plan would likely be permissible under a three-prong test imposed by the Louisiana Constitution. The requirements consist of having a public purpose for the payouts that is in line with the agency’s authority, ensuring the payouts are not gratuitous and demonstrating that the public agency will reap substantial benefits from the payout program.
“It is the opinion of this office that the city of New Orleans may institute a retention pay program as long as it has a demonstrable, objective and reasonable expectation of receiving something real and substantial in exchange for the retention pay,” the attorney general’s opinion states.
Concerns about the need to retain and recruit officers have grown as the city begins to deal with a “catastrophic” officer shortfall, according to the opinion. This comes amid rising crime rates, including a 30.8% increase in murders and a 45.9% increase in carjackings between March of 2021 and March of 2022.
Melanie Talia, president of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation, expressed support for city proposals designed to help retain city police officers.
“I support additional pay for our law enforcement,” Talia told the Louisiana Record. “If it is a one-time incentive or if it is a regularly scheduled increase, I think our officers need to be adequately compensated.”
This week, the New Orleans City Council voted to provide the foundation with $900,000 to help recruit officers. The funds will be used to give officer candidates the ability to take the city’s civil service exam remotely and to increase outreach to qualified applicants, according to Talia.
“If we can offer the test remotely, that would allow people to test any time of the day or night,” she said.