249 New Orleans police officers left posts

Julia Silverman

NEW ORLEANS — About 250 police officers — roughly 15 percent of the force — will be investigated for leaving their posts without permission during Hurricane Katrina and the storm’s chaotic aftermath, a deputy police chief said Tuesday.

Deputy Chief Warren Riley said each case will be investigated individually to determine which officers were truly deserters and which had legitimate reasons for being absent.

“Everything will be done on a case-by-case basis. The worst thing we could do is take disciplinary action against someone who was stranded in the storm or whose child is missing,” Riley said.

The officers who are on a list will be investigated by the department’s internal affairs bureau and then referred to a review board that will likely include police commanders and civilians, Riley said.

Also on Tuesday, the Louisiana Deartment of Health and Hospitals said 885 bodies of Katrina victims had been recovered, up from 841 as of Friday.

Mayor Ray Nagin told The Times-Picayune, which first reported the plan to review the missing officers’ cases, that the city attorney’s office will ensure that it falls within civil service regulations. The department has about 1,700 officers.

Lt. David Benelli, president of the Police Association of New Orleans, the union for rank-and-file officers, said true deserters should be fired.

“For those who left because of cowardice, they don’t need to be here,” Benelli told the paper. “If you’re a deserter and you deserted your post for no other reason than you were scared, then you left the department and I don’t see any need for you to come back.”

But Benelli said he believes only a small fraction of the officers will wind up being deserters.

“We know there were people who flat-out deserted,” he said. “But we also know there were officers who had to make critical decisions about what to do with their families.”

(Associated Press)