FEATURES

Susan Hutson, New Orleans’ New Independent Police Monitor
by Lovell Beaulieu

Up with DOJ
by Lovell Beaulieu

Art, Glorious Art
by Dr. Sarah Hollis

SUNO under siege
by Lovell Beaulieu

Broken Promises
By Lolis Eric Elie

Amour De Cafe
by Fallon Jai

Columns & Departments

Publisher's Notes
Month in Review
Our Town
Blackonomics

The New Orleans Tribune catches
up with Susan Hutson, New Orleans’
new Independent Police Monitor

Susan Hutson was recently selected by New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux as the new independent police monitor for the city of New Orleans. A Texas lawyer who was working as an assistant inspector general while overseeing the Los Angeles Police Department, Hutson is no stranger to New Orleans, having graduated from Tulane University’s Law school.

The Tribune caught up with Ms. Hutson over lunch recently out in Pasadena, Ca. And while the surroundings at the Langham Hotel exuded elegance and distinction–the newly tapped independent police monitor made it clear that she knew that she was not headed for a tea party or easy picnic in New Orleans.

Tribune: Could you define for our readers what your exact duties are going to be with respect to your title of independent police monitor for the city of New Orleans?”

Ms. Hutson: “I will be working for the inspector general whose job is to more or less audit the city of New Orleans; my job for him is to audit the New Orleans Police Department…their investigations of themselves, the P.I.B. Investigations and lastly to review their policies and procedures.
For instance; let’s say there is a shooting; I am going to look at things such as tactics. How and when are they allowed to draw their weapons, to shoot, etc. It’s the job of the independent police monitor to make recommendations about changes to their departments’ policies and procedures, as well as how they investigate themselves.”

Tribune: When you mention “auditing” the police department, are we talking about financial matters within the department?

Ms. Hutson: “My department will be strictly involved in reviewing the shootings, police performance, and how their public integrity bureau or PIB investigates themselves. We will review their investigations and databases and we will look carefully at the numbers. How many complaints are sustained, how many aren’t, what type of discipline is issued, and how often. Is it appropriate discipline? These are the types of things we will be looking at.”

Tribune: Do you see the move from Los Angeles to New Orleans as presenting a specific challenge to you, and if so, can you define that challenge?

Ms. Hutson: “I have recently been in two different places that have had oversight and I got to hear a lot of the war stories. How hard it is to get these types of committees up and running, and then to run them right in light of the resistance that will be there.

But when I saw what was going on in New Orleans I thought it was a perfect situation. There is this huge push for change…you have the new mayor, police chief, and council members all expressing a need for change. You have the federal government coming in as well. New Orleans now has a police chief who understands just how much the new mayor wants to have change, and how confidence levels on the part of citizens will need to soar in the NOPD.

So it’s not going to be as difficult down in New Orleans as much as it was in the other cities where I was involved in oversight. The huge momentum for change is there, and I am very excited about that. I will be part of something special and positive and as a result look forward to the challenge”.

Tribune: How do you plan on making the issue of transparency with respect to NOPD a reality and not something that is the stuff that dreams are made of?

Ms. Hutson: “Well that is the goal of oversight... transparency. We exist so that there is someone besides just those in the department looking at the investigations and looking at all of the functions. On the daily basis we are going to review and critique the investigations and we are going to be able to tell the public on our website and through our reports whether or not we think the police investigations were thorough and complete.

In fact, when we sit down and show them how we are going to critique them, we are going to get their input as well. It won’t be just a one-way street, as we plan on letting them know how we are going to critique them by using their own rules and regulations. When it comes to shootings, we are going to go out to the scene of the crimes; we are going to be there from start to finish. We’ll get to see the evidence as it lies there. We will see the crime scene; we will hear what the initial story is about and what supposedly happened. Lastly, we’ll see the complete investigation and then be able to tell the public about it”.

Tribune: Our new mayor has made it clear that there will be a federal (Department of Justice) body in New Orleans as his administration goes forward. How will a federal presence affect your office and your role as independent police monitor?

Ms. Hutson: “I’ll base my answer on my experiences while in Los Angeles when dealing with consent decree, which will basically outline our duties. That decree will govern what we do on a day-to-day basis. There will be requirements of the police department as well as requirements of the inspector general’s office that we will have to meet.

A consent decree is all about compliance. You have to be able to show that you are making change- you have to write reports in order to show compliance. You normally don’t deal with those on the federal level on a daily basis, but these reports are due within a certain time period”

Tribune: What specific challenges do you feel await you in your new role?

Ms. Hutson: “It all revolves around trust. The trust that others can count on me to do what I have said that I am going to do-that; I won’t be a talking head or in cahoots with the police department. People should know that I will be independent of the department (P.D.) and will be hard in critiquing them. I shall be straightforward; I want complete investigations.

Also, the police department will have to trust me in what I write back to them, that this is what I have found. They will need to be able to trust me and say yes, this is what actually went on according to her findings. Lastly, the department will be able to relate to me. I have no problems talking with anyone at any level. I have nothing to hide in this process, and want the police department to know exactly what we are doing-so if I can shine a brighter light on that process, I will be glad to do it.