page_title: New Orleans Police Department
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: New Orleans Police Department / History
caption_attribution_description: New Orleans, 1871: "On the Levee:" "Negro Policeman". Sketch by Alfred R. Waud.
context_page_description: The New Orleans Police Department has primary responsibility for law enforcement in New Orleans, Louisiana. The department's jurisdiction covers all of Orleans Parish, while the city is divided into eight police districts.
  Shaun D. Ferguson has been the Superintendent of Police since January 18, 2019. Former Superintendents have included Michael S. Harrison, Ronal W. Serpas, Eddie Compass, Richard Pennington, Arnesta Taylor, Warren Woodfork, Henry Morris, James Parsons, Clarence Giarrusso and Joseph Giarrusso.
context_section_description: After New Orleans was founded by French colonists in 1718, the policing of the city was done by military forces. These were alternating French, Spanish and French under differing governmental rule. The formation of the New Orleans Police Department was first recorded in 1796, during the administration of Baron Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet. The account said, "Crime had reached such proportions by the mid-1790s that a full-time city police force was required." In the early 1800s, the council authorized the hiring of free people of color, who were to be commanded by white officers. During French and Spanish years, a relatively large class of free people of color had developed in New Orleans, many of whom had become educated and property owners. Of mixed race, they had become established as a distinct class in the society, between the ethnic European residents and the mass of mostly African slaves in the region.
  On November 8, 1803, Mayor Etienne de Boré held the first council meeting, and appoints a committee to inspect prisons and formulate police rules. He also appoints Pierre Achille Rivery Commissioner General of Police, with 25 agents at his head. They are quickly forced to resign as a result of numerous complaints, and the city authorized to engage mulattoes, which are placed under the authority of white officers, became a part of the United States on December 20, 1803 by virtue of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1804 a patrol militia was organized under James Pitot, the Mayor of New Orleans, two years later the body dissolved. With urbanization, in 1817, the city had 46 commissioners, it was divided into four police districts (Old Square, Faubourg Tremé (in), St. Mary and Faubourg Marigny). Given the inefficiency of this one, committees of "vigilantes" are created in the years 1820–1830. In 1836, the city was divided into three separate municipalities, each with an autonomous police force..
  In July 1866 Republicans called for a Louisiana Constitutional Convention at the Mechanics Institute in New Orleans, as they were angered by the legislature's passage of Black Codes and failure to provide suffrage for free men of color and freedmen. Blacks marched in support of the convention, and were attacked on the street by a white mob, made up of ex-Confederate veterans. This was later called the New Orleans Riot of 1866. The mob killed 34 black citizens and three white Republicans; estimates of wounded ranged from 48 to more than 100, mostly black. The riot "stemmed from deeply rooted political, social, and economic causes," and took place in part because of the battle "between two opposing factions for power and office." The governor called in federal troops to restore order. The riots in New Orleans and Memphis that year contributed to Congressional passage of Reconstruction legislation and domination of the state by military forces for several years.
  Violence continued in the state and city related to each election, particularly before and after the disputed gubernatorial election of 1872. Tensions continued, although the federal government had certified the Republican slate and William Kellogg as governor. In September 1874, in the so-called Battle of Liberty Place, 5,000 members of the White League entered the city in an attempted takeover of state buildings to seat John McEnery, the Democratic candidate for governor. Well-armed, they overwhelmed the 3500 members of the integrated Metropolitan police force, blacks and Republicans, and occupied the state armory and other buildings for three days. Learning that federal troops were arriving by ship, the White League forces retreated from the city. The Louisiana State Museum reports that 11 Metropolitans were killed and 60 wounded, while 16 White Leaguers were killed and 45 wounded.
   The October 1890 murder of Police Chief David Hennessey resulted in the lynching of eleven suspects 
  Between July 24 and July 28, 1900, a violent suspect Robert Charles resisted arrest and killed four police officers and mortally wounded one.
caption: African American New Orleans Police officer, 1871, sketched by Alfred Waud
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