NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans Police Department, battered by criticism over its response to Hurricane Katrina and reeling from the resignation of its chief this week, announced Thursday that it had launched an investigation into officer misconduct in the chaotic days after the storm struck.
Police officers are suspected of standing by while looters emptied stores. Some are themselves suspected of looting. Witnesses saw police officers helped themselves to items from the shelves at a Wal-Mart in the lower Garden District.
It is the department's second storm-related investigation. Police are also looking into officer desertion after the hurricane.
Acting Police Supt. Warren Riley said the misconduct investigation would be based largely on video evidence the department is collecting.
Video "does in fact show police officers with some items," Riley said. "One video simply shows officers in a location where they were not in fact looting but weren't stopping people who were looting.
"We have zero tolerance for misconduct from any member of this department," he said. "Swift and decisive action will be taken."
Riley said the department was functioning well and was able to handle the increased workload in the reawakening city. On Thursday, Mayor C. Ray Nagin opened the French Quarter, central business district and Uptown area to business owners. Today, residents of those areas will be allowed to return.
"The department is not dysfunctional," Riley said. "We have 1,400-plus officers on the street. We are up and running."
Riley replaced Supt. Eddie Compass, who stepped down Tuesday. At the time, a police spokesman said Compass was retiring to spend more time with his family. But Compass told his officers that the mayor forced him out, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper.
The department was troubled long before Katrina. Federal officials recently completed an eight-year investigation into police abuse and civil rights violations. From 1994 to 1999, 200 police officers were dismissed or convicted of crimes, including two murders.
In the last month, the police have been criticized for doing too little to evacuate the city before the hurricane and to secure the city afterward. Anger at police grew as media began broadcasting scenes of the confusion and distress at the Superdome and convention center, along with rumors of violence that Compass helped spread in interviews.
