The Justice Department has answered concerns of the City of New Orleans over the plan to reform the police department. It wants the federal appeals court to put the process back on track.
Justice Department attorneys say the city is exaggerating how expensive it will be to hire a police monitor.
Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration says the monitor will cost about $7 million, and it says it’s unfair to impose the monitor when the consent decree itself is being appealed.
The Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals granted a temporary stay last week.
Landrieu maintains the city can’t afford the landmark plan while another consent decree is now demanding expensive reforms at the jail.
Federal attorneys say the city should have known what was coming in the decrees. And they say the cost of the police monitor would be spread over four years and would not break the city’s financial back.
