4.1 History of Policing in New Orleans
Franklyn Scott
The Big Easy, as New Orleans is affectionately known, has a vivid and continuous history; however, the city is also known for violence and high crime rates, with many instances of police corruption and abuse of power. In exploring New Orleans’ history, a uniqueness emerged. The city of New Orleans encompasses characteristics of various cities in America as well as the entire Southern region.
Dennis Rousey (1984) is extremely cognizant of both the uniqueness and representation in his recollection of the police in all cities as being the most noticeable organization. There have not been many publications on any particular police department in many years; in the 1980s, the discussion on the topic was synthesized. Police pioneers’ historians Roger Lane and Eric Monkkonen focused on criminality and violence. Rousey noted that past historians have briefly discussed cities in the South, noting some of their uniqueness; however, none have ever conducted an extensive study of any particular police department for an extended period of time. Rousey provides in-depth insight into the urban South and New Orleans. His analysis of police use of deadly force with firearms is deemed the most detailed and perceptive given, also finding high rates of police-on-police shootings and nonqualified police officers.
The author provides a description of the development of the New Orleans police department in five phases, a procedure that includes considerable regression and retreat as it progresses. The first phase started in early 1805 as the development of a military-, gendarmerie-styled police department that focused its time and energy on control of the enormous population of slaves. This type of policing was similar to the styles in Mobile, Charleston, Richmond, and Savannah. Rousey argues that the salaried, uniformed, and armed police forces organized by the city mostly operating in the evening were a representation of the “first contemporary styled police.” The military-styled police officers were equipped with muskets and sabers, were commanded by officers and marched in a squad, and lived in the barracks. Northeastern cities are often credited with the revolutionizing methods of modern policing as opposed to the predated police as night watchmen. The author’s thesis is powerful which causes us to reconsider the policing origins and recounting the influential connection amid racial domination and social control.
The author asserts that crime prevention by way of omnipresence was a vital concept of modern policing; however, the gendarmes did not exemplify this concept. They did not walk the beat as regulated by patrol, and most daily patrolling was completed by detectives that issued warrants through the courts. The gendarmes’ purposefulness was restricted to controlling the possible slave criminality and rebellion.
The author believes that due to the popularity of the Jacksonian government, decreased population