January to March 2023 AND April to June 2023

Captain of the Night

I was in Colorado with my aunt like we do every year for Christmas and upon my return I received a call from Chief Hans Ganthier. He told me ALL the captains were getting moved. (This already didn’t sound good.)

It seemed to be a difficult thing for him to find the words to say, so he finally said something like, “look, there is no real easy way to say it but…” I was assigned to a new position (which used to exist decades ago) called the Night Watch Commander. My hours would be 7:00 P.M. to 3:00 A.M. HOLY SHIT.

A few months prior to this the department began assigning non-district captains to work these hours in a rotational basis. I knew from that what the job entailed, having spoken to those captains on a regular basis.

All I could say is, “OK, chief.” After I hung up, I told Julie and we sat in shock and tried to figure out how this was going to work. Next, I called all my friends with the news. There was a rumor that a staffing issue we had to deal with some weeks earlier in my district was the reason, but in reality, someone else was getting this district, just like every single other district, so that was that.

I did request a meeting with Chief Ganthier to clear a few things up, mainly that if I had done something wrong I was never going to learn from it if I wasn’t told what it was. He asked me if I had been disciplined for anything since being in the First District. He knew that I hadn’t. His answer was that I hadn’t done anything wrong. They had just decided to assign a captain to nights because that level of command was not available in those hours, and they needed consistency. He told me I was the obvious pick because I was so motivational as evidenced by my time in the Seventh District. Word was that people talk to me and I always make them feel better about their job and the department as a whole.

I could smell the smoke being blown up my bottom, but accepted this answer – but I couldn’t let it rest. “Chief, in 1 year when I retire if this position isn’t filled, I’ll know it was created only for me and wasn’t that important.” This is when he assured me of its importance and that it would continue to be filled. (It wasn’t.)

By and by, as Uncle Remus would say, I came to realize this wasn’t so bad. The obvious downside was that I rarely saw Julie except for weekends. I had to work one weekend a month (no other captains did) so on those weeks I had the weeknight with Julie. I like nights, though. I always have. After a week or so, I loved it. My only duties were to make the scene of citywide shootings, murders, some armed robberies and be the command staff on duty in the event anyone needed a decision from that level. Before this, lieutenants or sergeants had to wake up their captain for big decisions. I would occasionally move personnel from one district to another when one was short. It was a good gig without any real responsibility or much to do. I soon became the envy of other captains.

I had no more weekly MAX meetings, a crime meeting where captains need to prepare a presentation to the chiefs about their crime stats, clearance rates, audit results, evaluation progression, community concerns and how we are dealing with them, and a myriad of other things. THOSE MEETINGS ARE PURE GARBAGE FOR THE MOST PART AND I ADDRESS IT IN A SEPARATE CATEGORY.

Besides no MAX meetings, the First District overlapped FOUR city council districts. As I said in the First District section above, I had Councilmember Joe Giarusso, Lesli Harris, Eugene Green and Freddie King or their staff emailing or calling me all the time about concerns. They were all very nice and we all liked each other, but it’s a lot to have four. No more did I have this.

No MAX, no city council contact, no subordinates, no evaluations, no audits… wow this is GREAT! No traffic, I could go on and on. Capt. Gwen Nolan had just moved from the Fifth to the Second District and she gave me a sweet office in the corner of her station to work out of.

After my first paycheck came in I realized I was getting night watch differential. This is a 5% payment to officers working after 7:00 P.M. Not only was I the captain doing far less than I was before, and less than almost all the other captains, I was the only one getting this pay. I made more than ALL the other captains! HAHAHA.

One of my friends coined the term, “Captain of the Night” which I loved and adopted. I even made business cards with that on it. Once at an award event then-Interim Superintendent Michelle Woodfork called out to me and said, “I saw your card – it’s hilarious!” That is permission if I ever heard it.

Mardi Gras 2023 was much different for me than Mardi Gras 2022 was. As a captain, we get no overtime. All those hours working during Mardi Gras are free. So as the captain of the First District I worked a LOT, but got the same paycheck I got each 2 weeks. However, as Captain of the Night, I wasn’t given any special assignment. I simply worked my 8 hours each night and went home.

Bacchus

One night, February 19, 2023, I was on St. Charles Avenue during the Bacchus parade. I went to the area near MLK since it was down from the 6th District station where I attended roll call. I’m just hanging around when I hear a shooting on the parade route! The shooting was behind the crowd at the intersection of Terpsichore, where Hoshun Restaurant is. It was pure chaos and it happened despite officers and sheriff deputies being stationed all over the place right there. The Fifth District was assigned to that area on the route. In describing what happened, I will refer to what I personally saw but more importantly, what I saw in watching the body worn cameras (BWC) of the officers involved.

Officers Kate Barker and Nicole Alcala were chatting about an incident from moments before when shots rang out. I am not exaggerating when I say that watching what happened next on those two BWC videos made my heart pound like I was there. It was like I was watching a very intense action movie. Without skipping a beat, both officers shut up, turned on their cameras (they buffer back 1 minute which is how I saw all that), got on the radio to call it in all while RUNNING towards the gunshots. I’m getting a faster heartbeat right now remembering it.

They ran down the suspects, called EMS for the victims, and recovered weapons. They are my Mardi Gras 2023 heroes. I’m super happy to be their friend. I nominated them and the other officers coming to their aid for an award. I was so proud of them as I sat in that award ceremony and saw them get it.