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'Rats eating our marijuana': NOPD Police Chief says rats are destroying evidence
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As she highlighted multiple problems at the nearly 60-year-old New Orleans Police Department's headquarters on Broad Street, Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick stunned the New Orleans City Council with a detail most had not heard before: rats have overrun the NOPD's Evidence and Property Room, destroying evidence collected in drug busts.
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — As she highlighted multiple problems at the nearly 60-year-old New Orleans Police Department's headquarters on Broad Street, Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick stunned the New Orleans City Council with a detail most had not heard before: rats have overrun the NOPD's Evidence and Property Room, destroying evidence collected in drug busts.
"The rats are eating our marijuana," said Kirkpatrick, "they're all high."
Kirkpatrick called it an "infestation" of rats.
"People shouldn't have to come through their offices and see rodent drippings on their desk."
Kirkpatrick said there are also roaches and "heavy mold," which she called a "health issue."
Beyond that, she said the building's elevators and toilets are routinely out of service.
Kirkpatrick spelled out the problems as the council moves forward on a plan to move the NOPD into two floors of a downtown skyscraper across from the Superdome, the former Freeport McMoran building on Poydras.
"In the end, it does not make sense for y' all to put any more money into [the current headquarters]," Kirkpatrick told the council.
"It's not okay," she said. "It's not okay for your people to be treated that way and called valued."