March 25, 2013
TO: All Members of NOPD
FROM: Eric Hessler, PANO Attorney
The Police Association of New Orleans is holding a SPECIAL MEETING on WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2013 to discuss ways to effectively address the issues being faced by NOPD rank and file officers. The main thrust of the meeting is to discuss the newly proposed detail policy and to establish a course of action to combat it. Since many officers work details (both PANO and non-PANO members), all New Orleans Police Officers who may be affected by this issue are urged to attend.
The best way to prevail against this issue is to stand together. The City Administration's tried and true method of dividing and conquering NOPD officers has to be ended. Only you and your fellow officer can do this. If you want to do more than just complain, if you want to send the message that just because you work a detail you are not corrupt, and if you want to do something about your future, you must attend this meeting.
Again, all NOPD officers are welcomed and all input is appreciated.
Southport Hall
200 Monticello Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70121
6 pm to 8 pm.
Free Beer/Cash Bar
If you have need additional information please call PANO.
Posted by:
Rhonda McCord
Executive Assistant
Police Association of New Orleans
2802 Tulane Avenue #101
New Orleans, Louisiana 70119
504 942-2454
March 19, 2013
OFFICERS NEED ASSISTANCE
I have spoken to dozens of officer about how the “Reformed” detail system will affect their future and their ability to maintain their standard of living. While every individual officer describes different ways on how this change will impact him/her (and their families), a couple of issues are universal.
Not one single officer believes that this drastic change is good, necessary or even workable; and
All describe an uncertainty about how they will survive financially.
Regarding the first issue, neither the DOJ nor the city has ever directly explained how the detail system is corrupt or else how it actually serves as the “Aorta of Corruption” within the NOPD.
They have not done this because they can’t. There is no proof or evidence for them to offer, because there is none. But they label it as such, with a catchy little title, so who would dare argue? Even the city has now admitted this, albeit a little too late.
Interestingly enough, the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, under a similar Consent Decree, appears to have virtually no “Reforms” of their detail system. (I’ll bet Sal Perricone, who has an unexplainable, pathological hatred of the NOPD had nothing to do with the Sheriff’s Office Consent Decree). Simply put, the detail system was working well, for officers and citizens alike, and there such drastic and change is not necessary. The breadth and scope of the policies do not appear to be workable or practical. They also appear to be “influenced” by politics, money and power. (Aren’t these the things the “Reformers” wanted to ensure were removed from the system?)
Has the DOJ or city ever offered a rational explanation on why schools and churches (politics) banks, (money) or major special events (politics, money and power) can be exempted but other similar details cannot?
No they have not. It’s all B.S. The DOJ was misinformed by Perricone, the City saw an opportunity to help fund the Consent Decree, and the machine was started.
Now no one wants to stop it, only complain about it. You can complain about it until it runs you over. We are investigating legal channels, ranging from possible injunctions, and lawsuits. The city is used to this, and does not really care. Lawsuits can last for years. The many officers who depend on details to supplement their city salary cannot afford to wait.
If you really want to change this policy, and not just complain about it, the time is NOW. The DOJ and the City obviously listened when banks, schools, churches and major event organizers stood up and said “No, we don’t need this”, and they were right. Now you, the affected officer, need to do the same. Stand up for yourself, your family and your fellow officers. And do it before it’s too late.
Some major events, Jazz Fest and French Quarter Fests, etc.. are rapidly approaching. These are some of the events that have the power to cause the system, as we have already witnessed.
Can you imagine the message your fellow officers could send if, instead of exercising your privilege to work these details, you chose to spend it with your family you work so hard to support, or in the home you so heavily invest in?
Call us to get information on a SPECIAL MEETING we will be holding to address these important issues and more. ALL MEMBERS of the NOPD are encouraged to attend.
OR JUST SIT BACK AND COMPLAIN.
Eric Hessler
PANO Legal Counsel
January 15, 2013
PANO would like to remind our members as we prepare for Mardi Gras & Super Bowl Sunday,we are available to YOU if there is a need of assistance. PLEASE be careful out there and know we are a phone call away 504 942-2454.
PANO General Membership Meeting will be held the 3rd Tuesday of the month due to Mardi Gras.
PANO General Membership Meeting
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
7:00PM
2802 Tulane Avenue
PANO General Membership Meeting Dates 2013
February 19 – March 12 – April 9 – May 14 – June 11 – July 9 –
August 13 – September 10 – October 8 – November 12 – December 10
December 18, 2012
CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY
The PANO Office will be closed for Christmas from Monday December 24, 2012 thru Tuesday January 1, 2013 and will reopen on Wednesday, January 2, 2013. WE will be available to our members 24/7. If you have an emergency call the PANO Office (504) 942-2454.
PANO GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
7:00PM
2802 Tulane Avenue
Start your 2013 by becoming active in PANO; plan to attend as many General Membership Meetings as possible.
On behalf of the PANO Executive Board we wish ALL of our members, families & friends a Happy Holiday Season!
December 4, 2012
You are invited to last PANO General Membership Meeting of 2012!!!
PANO General Membership Meeting
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
7:00PM
PANO Office
2802 Tulane Avenue
The PANO Board & Eric will be there to bring you the latest updates and take your questions. Hope to see YOU on next Tuesday, December 11.
The PANO office will be closed the week of December 24, and will reopen on January 2, 2013. However, if you have an emergency or in need assistance call the PANO office @ 504 942-2454. PANO is always available 24/7.
On behalf of the PANO Executive Board we wish you and your family a
Happy Holiday Season!
By:
Rhonda McCord
Executive Assistant
Police Association of New Orleans
2802 Tulane Avenue #101
New Orleans, Louisiana 70119
August 2, 2012
PANO Office Has Moved to NEW Location
After 33 years, the offices of the Police Association of New Orleans are moving. While it has been great at Esplanade and Moss, changes in the department and in our renewed commitment to our membership has prompted us to make a change. As many of you will recall, our location was adjacent to the old 3rd District station, and the buildings that once housed the Academy and then after that, SOD. The PANO office location was quite convenient back then. But those units have long since moved away, the buildings that housed them are gone, and it became apparent to us that we need to move too.
The offices of the Police Association of New Orleans will be at 2802 Tulane Avenue, corner of South White Street, overlooking the Criminal Court Building, and one block from Headquarters. We will still be open Monday through Friday, 8am to 4 pm, and we encourage everyone to stop by and see the new office. For those officers waiting to be called for court, we encourage you to stop in....we have WiFi, Cable, computers, printers, soft drinks, coffee, and snacks. We have lots of space and a clean bathroom you don't have to share with the defendants you're going to trial with. Our General Counsel, Eric Hessler, will be sharing office space and will be even more accessible to our members. Come in, check it out. Ask a question, tell us what's on your mind, or just grab a coke or a cup of coffee. Your PANO is now closer than ever and right where you can see us. Look for us right over the corner restaurant, on the corner of Tulane and South White. Putting PANO and your legal counsel right where you need us.
PANO
2802 Tulane Avenue Suite 101
New Orleans, Louisiana 70119
Telephone 504 942-2454
Fax 504 942-2450
June 27, 2012
PANO General Membership Meeting
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
7:00PM
The Esplanade at city Park
3443 Esplanade Avenue #108
Hope to see YOU there.
THANK YOU to ALL who took the time and completed the survey.
Dr. Peter Scharf and his staff are currently working on certifying the responses that have been submitted. PANO along with everyone is eager to learn the findings in the survey.
PANO is here for YOU, and we can be reached at 504 942-2454
June 19, 2012
Dear NOPD Officers:
As I am sure you are aware, Tulane University is conducting an online job related survey regarding YOUR working conditions. PANO has always encouraged its members to participate, as well as ALL sworn NOPD Personnel.
I am pleased to see that both BOP & FOP have encouraged their membership to participate in this survey. The survey procedure is anonymous and secure. Your identity or participation will not and cannot be divulged.
PANO intends to use the information obtained from this survey to better identify, address, and improve your working conditions and our services to YOU.
It is our hope that through your honest answers and your participation we can effect change to your work environment, improve your safety and help get you the respect that you have worked so hard for and deserve.
As a former NOPD officer myself, I have seen surveys such as these come and go with little follow up or affect. We are, however, with your participation, committed to “pressing the fight”.
PLEASE log on to the link provide below and be heard, take the survey today! NEW deadline is SUNDAY, JUNE 24 @ MIDNIGHT.
PANO Members can log on directly and follow instructions to proceed to take the survey. NON PANO members need to call Rhonda @ PANO 504 942-2454 to get a four digit number to log in.
http://tulane.us2.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_9XCP3HGaBV4VXec.
Sincerely,
Eric Hessler
Legal Council
PANO
June 17, 2012
TO: ALL MEMBERS OF NOPD
The survey being conducted by Dr. Peter Scharf has been extended until Sunday, June 24, 2012. You can log on to the below link and take the survey until midnight on June 24.
http://tulane.us2.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_9XCP3HGaBV4VXec
The survey is extremely important for officers and civilian members of NOPD. Everyone should take the ten minutes out of your day and answer the questions, your opinion matters! Please ask your co-workers if they took the survey and if they have not encourage them to do so.
PANO members can log on directly to the link.
NONO members need to call Rhonda @ PANO 504 942-2454, and get a four digit code.
Thanks for taking the survey.
By:
Rhonda McCord
Executive Assistant
Police Association of New Orleans
3443 Esplanade Avenue #108
New Orleans, Louisian1 70119
504 942-2454
June 6, 2012
re: Anonymity & Confidentiality in the NOPD Job Satisfaction & Retention Survey
The following is from Professor Peter Scharf and Staff, who are the sole administrators of the Survey:
“The following processes have been put in place to protect the privacy of respondents to the New Orleans Police Department Job Satisfaction and Retention Survey. The survey software has SAS70 Certification and meets the rigorous privacy standards imposed on health records by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The account used to design the survey is password protected and protected from real-time data replication. Once the survey closes on June 17th and verification is complete, the verification questions will be stripped from the final data set in order to prevent the ability to link individuals to survey responses.”
What all this technical talk means, put quite simply, is that Professor Scharf and staff work out of the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. And as such, all of their information is federally protected by HIPAA, which has stringent federal protection guidelines against incursion, replication, or tampering. Further, the use of Name letters and partial social security numerics are only to prevent duplicate or multiple entries and to ensure only qualified respondents participate. Once the data is collected, all of the IDs are removed from the data entirely. Remember the survey is accessed by link on the internet, not by email. And the link goes directly to Tulane, and only to Tulane. All of the information is under the sole control of Professor Scharf. The City and the NOPD have no access whatsoever to the data at any point. Ever. If any questions remain, please do not hesitate to call me at 504-319-8400, email glassermd@aol.com, or for questions of a more technical nature, contact a member of Professor Scharf’s staff at apriebe@tulane.edu.
Bottom Line: The Survey is completely Anonymous & Confidential.
Mike Glasser
PANO President
(504) 319-8400
glassermd@aol.com
June 4, 2012
re: SURVEY
In February, 2012, the Police Association of New Orleans released a letter written by a group of police officers identifying what they believe are failing crime fighting strategies and deficient management & administrative decisions which are contributing to the ability of the NOPD to ensure adequate public safety. This letter identified numerous areas of concern and implored the public to compel the department to change these conditions. The reaction from the administration of the NOPD was to dismiss the allegations as limited to a few disgruntled officers, and described the overwhelming majority of officers as satisfied with the administration and overall direction of the NOPD.
Now, several months later, we are in the wake of increasing street violence, and faced with more “plans”, more “missions”, but fewer and fewer officers due to an appalling attrition rate and astonishingly low morale, not to mention a shrinking fleet. The administration maintains that all is well, and the majority of officers are pleased with the direction of the department and confident in philosophies we are asked to embrace.
Challenging this conclusion, the Police Association of New Orleans, in collaboration with renowned criminologist Professor Peter Scharf, has developed a SURVEY designed to measure the key issues identified in the letter and continuously raised by officers with whom we speak daily. This SURVEY is open to ALL members of the New Orleans Police Department, commissioned and civilian, PANO members and non-members. PANO hopes the findings will be used to accurately identify the key issues which are preventing this department from providing the quality service expected by our citizens. It is our hope that this SURVEY, through aggressive and honest participation, followed by accurate assessment by Dr. Scharf and staff, will provide the department and public with a greater awareness of the genuine problems facing our officers.
This survey will begin on June 5, 2012, ay 1:00 am, and run through midnight June 17, 2012. The survey will be Web-based. The site can accessed through the link provided below. Responses to the survey are totally anonymous.
http://tulane.us2.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_9XCP3HGaBV4VXec.
PANO MEMBERS:
When you reach the site, you will be asked to LOG IN with the first two letters of your last name, and the last four digits of your social security number. You may then answer the questions in the survey and submit.
NON-PANO MEMBERS:
Please call PANO at (504) 942-2454 and provide your name. You will be given a four-digit number. You can then LOG IN using the first two letters of your last name and the four-digit number provided.
Please call during regular business hours (9 am – 5pm) to get your number…once you have the number, you can access and answer the survey anytime, 24 hours a day, until midnight, June 17, 2012.
This is the first Survey conducted by YOUR organization. Please take advantage of this opportunity. Answer the questions honestly. Remember, it is anonymous.
Once the survey is closed, the findings will be tabulated and made available.
If there any questions, please call or email me at the contact information below.
Mike Glasser, PANO President
GlasserMD@aol.com
(504) 319-8400
Police Association of New Orleans
3443 Esplanade Avenue #108
New Orleans, Louisiana 70119
(504)942-2454
2012 Attorney Day….Every Thursday from 2:00PM-4:00PM
Call PANO for appointment 504 942-2454.
