COMMANDER vs CAPTAIN

A little history is in order here. You can skip it but it means a lot to me that we finally got this right and I need to point out how infuriating the system was before PANO made the department get in line with the law. MANY thanks to the Police Association of New Orleans for this.

In August of 2004 the last civil service captain test results were published. Men and women took the civil service test and assessment center just like we all did for sergeant and lieutenant, and they were promoted off of this list until 2009. In law enforcement, best practices is to give promotional tests around each three years. This list lasted five years, which really isn’t terrible if they had ever given another test. They didn’t.

On October 27, 2010 Superintendent Ronal Serpas proposed a hybrid rank of Colonel. The Civil Service Division of the City of New Orleans were concerned this proposed position was indistinguishable from the already established civil service rank of Major and, thus, they disapproved the position.

This proposal sent shock waves through the department. It was clear to the lieutenants we weren’t going to get a civil service test and would, instead, be chosen somehow by who-knows-who. By the way, those who would be doing the choosing had been promoted to captain and major via the same civil service testing process they meant to do away with. “Good for me, not good for you.”

In 2011 the colonel position idea was changed. Now, there would be “Commanders” who weren’t a rank, but a special rate of pay (which came with a white uniform) based on being assigned a command. The superintendent would choose who would be assigned to these positions and those people would still be civil service lieutenants, but Commanders due to their assignment.

(The details of the following paragraphs will be summed up at the --> :( <-- and you can skip to that if uninterested in the details.)

This was crap and PANO knew it, so they filed a challenge in Civil Service in July of 2011. They claimed (correctly) that the rate of pay position was just a charade for the creation of an unclassified position. (Unclassified positions do not have to test, they are chosen.) PANO also claimed it deprived promotional opportunities to civil service lieutenants and went against all civil service principles. Long story short, the Civil Service Commission (appointed by the Mayor) dismissed this petition.

PANO appealed this decision to the Fourth Circuit of Appeals court (Federal). That court concluded that an evidentiary hearing was required regarding the creation of the Commander position and they questioned the nature of the position as unclassified vs classified.

Once this was remanded to Civil Service for this evidentiary hearing, and Civil Service Division was to do a job study to investigate this “special rate of pay” position. Before any of this was done, in February of 2017, Superintendent Michael Harrison requested the Civil Service Commission approve SIXTEEN unclassified commanders to replace the previous Civil Service positions. This was approved in April. It had now been at least 13 years since the last captains test was given.

In July of 2018, after another failed appeal to the Fourth Circuit, PANO filed a motion with Civil Service to set a cutoff date for this study Civil Service was supposed to be doing for a few years. Since that date two audits by Civil Service Division Staff determined they did NOT support the position of Commander as either a classified OR an unclassified position. On

August 27, 2018 PANO asked for a civil service police major (a rank above captain) exam. NOPD said it wasn’t necessary to give that test because Commanders were already doing the job of both majors and captains. AHA! Gotcha, NOPD.

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On June 19, 2019, because of a great number of reasons, the Fourth Circuit reversed the decision of Civil Service to authorize the Commander positions in any form or fashion. This prompted a captain test.

The picking and choosing wasn’t over yet, though.

The captain test was given on August 16, 2021. This was SEVENTEEN YEARS since the last captain test. This fact alone should embarrass everyone responsible for it. I was informed on September 29, 2021 that I was number EIGHT on the list for the test I took on August 16th. They had to replace SIXTEEN Commanders, so I’m a captain. No doubt.

Well. So I thought. After 17 years of lieutenants being hand-picked for promotion without anyone having any idea how those decisions were made, here it comes again. They found a way around the captain test, at least partially.

The NOPD decided the test would only count for HALF the score. The other half would come from the combination of four other things:
1: A resume. This would be called the background analysis.
2: Evaluations for the last few years.
3: Disciplinary record.
4. An Interview.

These four things each were problematic. Briefly, the background needed to be diverse to get any points. Points in each category were given as ZERO, 50 or 100. Nothing in-between. If a person didn’t have a diverse background, it wasn’t entirely their fault. Some people had been chosen over the years to be in diverse assignments, and many were not. Evaluations are problematic because each supervisor does their evaluations differently and, depending on assignment, your evaluation may be far better than a person in a difficult assignment. (Assignments are given by the higher ups, remember.) Discipline records are problematic for the same reason. Some assignments, like a platoon, will naturally elicit more complaints than assignments where the person sits at a desk all year.

Lastly, the interview. I have no idea how this was scored but I do know my score was ZERO. I answered each question to the best of my ability, all that 28 years of experience allowed. In the end, I could have gone in there and belched and farted and would have gotten the same ZERO.

This process knocked me from number 8 on the list (a sure promotion among 16 spots) to number 18. NOT promoted. They also knocked Lt. Kim Williams out of the top 16 dropping her 10 spots as well. Believe it or not, number 17 and number 18 on the list were previously Commanders. By Kim and me being dropped out of the top 16, those two got pushed up into the top 16 and, thus, were promoted. How lucky!

I was in Puerto Rico when I found this out. I was SUPER PISSED. I still am. One of those Commanders who got pushed up was Jeff Walls. I don’t have a problem with Jeff, and my guess is if he had any say in the matter, he would have waited his turn. Who really knows? Soon, Jeff actually left the department to become the Chief of Ketchikan Police Department in Alaska. I was promoted on my birthday, January 16, 2021. 16 years after becoming a lieutenant.

Without PANO and a civil service test, I would have never been chosen to be promoted under the old, illegal system. I’ll never forget this.