By: Chris Joseph | fox8live.com | September 30, 2026
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) proposed cuts which could impact where officers go, what they do and what tools they’ll have available.
Supt. Anne Kirkpatrick presented the NOPD’s proposed 2027 budget to the New Orleans City Council Tuesday (Sept. 30) as the Moreno administration grapples with a financial crisis.
The presentation laid out the following cuts:
- $2 million in overtime
- $4.3 million in NOPD civilian staffing positions (enough for 63 full-time positions)
- $2.5 million cut to AXON contract (which includes body cameras, in car cameras and tasers)
- $1.3 million elimination of On Scene Services (civilian response to some traffic crashes)
- $452,000 in other operational cuts
Kirkpatrick emphasized the proposed cuts are “not done deals.”
The proposed elimination of On Scene Services (OSS) raised concerns from some councilmembers about NOPD response times.
As part of the presentation, the department touted how response times have been dropping in recent years.
Councilmember Aimee McCarron questioned Kirkpatrick about an elimination of the contract, asking if they will be “going back to six hour wait times.”
Council President JP Morrell echoed the concern.
“It would be a tremendous self-own, self-goal, horrible position to be in, if we were to not continue onsite services, if we saw call time creep back up to those terrifying levels,” he said.
Kirkpatrick floated the creation of an in-house civilian response team to replace OSS if needed.
She cautioned that effort would take three months, leaving officers to answer the calls.
“They will have to go service those, and that becomes in the cue as any other 911 call,” she said.
Morrell suggested a re-bidding of the contract, which NOPD leadership confirmed is an option under review.
After the hearing, Kirkpatrick told reporters the goal is to handle the crash calls with an “alternative approach.”
Kirkpatrick’s proposal also included cutting civilian staff.
She cautioned that staff’s work could also be put on officers.
“The work doesn’t go away. The work is still there, and so it would be subsumed by sworn staff and any other redirections of our current professional staff,” she said.
Kirkpatrick also pitched a cut to NOPD’s contract with AXON, which provides body-worn cameras and tasers. She acknowledged the reduction would lead to fewer body-worn cameras on officers.
Officer body-worn cameras can be used to investigate and expose officer wrong-doing.
Kirkpatrick said she isn’t concerned with any oversight or accountability implications.
“We would take a surgical approach of who really needs to have a body camera. So the idea about having a body camera is for that face-to-face citizen contact. Not all of our officers have citizen contacts and so those would be where we would make a surgical reduction,” she said.
Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche warned a reduction in body-worn cameras could haunt the NOPD.
He said officers who traditionally don’t interact with the public do so during special events like Mardi Gras.
“One lawsuit that isn’t supported by body cams or use of deadly force because an officer didn’t have a taser available to them, that could more than cost the city the savings that they’re supposedly realizing by eliminating these technologies,” he said.
The council did not vote on any of the cuts. It is expected to pass the budget by December.