The New Orleans Police Department received lots of good and bad press after the storm. The press initially wanted heroes and the comparisons to NYPD/NYFD after 911 were lavish.

The press reception of chief Eddie Compass was initially positive but deteriorated rapidly  when reports of police desertions and looting emerged. Compass resigned three weeks after the storm under pressure from the Mayor and was replaced by Warren Riley.

Immediately after the storm police were taped taking supplies from a store. Later they were able to show that they had been authorized to take survival supplies from the store, but the video tape showed actual looters in the background and the cops were suspended for failing to stop that looting. Other cops took Escalades from a Cadillac dealership as patrol vehicles. The dealer got the SUV's back.

Then Chief Compass told Oprah that  there were thousands dead in the city and that little babies were raped in the Superdome. Where did he get these ideas and why did he choose to state them to the national press as facts? Was he just too stressed out? This created a horrible nationwide reaction.

Then a CNN video crew caught some NOPD officers beating an elderly black man in the French Quarter. They claimed he was drunk and disorderly and they were subduing him. On the video it looked like they were beating him senseless. All charges were dropped against the man in March 2006.

Weeks later the police shot and killed a mentally incompetent man on St. Charles Avenue after he threatened them with a knife. An amateur video shows about twenty cops with guns drawn encircling the guy. The incident provoked a review by the NOPD of the deadly force. Subsequently the NOPD adopted tasers.

And then there was the Danziger Bridge incident (see below).

In 2006  after complete review a couple hundred cops were suspended or dismissed depending on how many days duty they missed after the storm. Many of the the dismissed were from the recruiting class.

In 2010 new Mayor Landrieu appointed Ronal Serpas Superintendant of the NOPD.