In a press conference in New Orleans today, Justice Department Civil Rights chief Thomas Perez announced the DOJ is launching a formal assessment of the city’s troubled police department, the first step to installing federal oversight.
The Times-Picayune reports:
In a letter to [Mayor Mitch] Landrieu also released Monday, Perez indicated the probe will “examine allegations of excessive force, unconstitutional searches and seizures, racial profiling, failures to provide adequate police services to particular neighborhoods and related misconduct.”
The move comes in the wake of new revelations about police shootings of unarmed civilians in the days after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and other allegations of misconduct.
Perez had suggested in an interview with TPMmuckraker last month that federal oversight of the department might be necessary. The news of the review was first reported by Main Justice.
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