“The dog ate my homework” is the stuff of second-graders. But what if the rats eat police work?
Knewz.com has learned about an unusual problem for the New Orleans Police Department. The superintendent admits some of her detectives’ evidence literally is being nibbled away.
“I want you to see the tray of all of the roaches, major rodents on the floor,” Anne Kirkpatrick told a city council committee Monday, March 11. “Rats eating our marijuana… they’re all high.”
Kirkpatrick also admitted the police central evidence and property building gets occasional visits from possums.
It’s not a new issue for New Orleans. WDSU-TV reported in 2017 that snakes were slithering inside, while rodents were found as well.
Police attempted to upgrade the building for almost a decade before that. A 2008 TV investigation found guns rusting in the evidence storehouse, while some evidence had disappeared.
A police spokesperson noted the evidence storehouse is leased and not city-owned.
“The NOPD will be moving the property room into the new evidence and processing center, currently in the design phase, on track for groundbreaking by the end of the year,” Beau Tidwell said in 2017.
But for some reason, that never happened. Even the American Civil Liberties Union became concerned about the conditions.
“If you have animals chewing… evidence, and there is saliva, it changes the chemistry and diminishes the value of evidence as it was intended,” Marjorie Esman with the ACLU said.
Kirkpatrick’s point now is that New Orleans needs a new police headquarters. The Criminal Justice Committee agreed March 11, voting to advance the idea to the full council.
The city’s chief administrative officer agreed that the current headquarters is eroding.
“The approach the administration has taken is really just one bite at a time,” Gilbert Montano told the committee.
But it’s become a matter of rodents biting bags of pot, while Kirkpatrick says police officers have no place to use a restroom.
“We all know the facilities have been run down,” council member Oliver Thomas said after the committee meeting. “Last year it was so hot that we had to close the building.”
And in winter, Thomas added, the Criminal Justice Center can be so cold that employees can’t work there.
If the full city council approves at its next meeting Thursday, March 21, a new headquarters would be built downtown near the Caesars Superdome. But that would take several years.
Police would move in the short term to the DXC Technology building. KPEL-FM in Lafayette reported that could happen by Wednesday, May 1.
While New Orleans police buildings might be run down, things could be worse.
FrontPageDetectives.com reported in August 2023 that authorities arrested a New Orleans drug suspect after he fell through an attic floor at a home.
The post Stoned Rats Eating Drug Evidence in Aging Police Building as New Orleans Official Pleads for New Headquarters appeared first on Knewz.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Richard Burkard
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://knewz.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.