Susan Hutson

Susan Hutson is an American lawyer who has been the sheriff of New Orleans, Louisiana, since May 2, 2022. A Democrat, Hutson is the first woman to hold the office. Before becoming Sheriff, she worked in criminal justice reform and police oversight.

Early life and education
Hutson was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and raised in Houston, Texas. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 and Tulane Law School in 1992.

Police oversight
For much of her career, Hutson worked in police oversight in Los Angeles, California, and Austin, Texas. This culminated in her becoming the assistant inspector general for the Los Angeles Police Department from 2007 to 2010. In 2010, she became the independent police monitor for the New Orleans Police Department, a position established after a successful referendum in 2008. She resigned from that position in 2021 after announcing her run for sheriff.

Hutson was also the president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, a citizen police oversight organization created in 2016. She also resigned from this position after announcing her run for sheriff.

Election as Sheriff
In April 2021, Hutson announced she would run for Orleans Parish Sheriff against longtime Sheriff Marlin Gusman, who had held the position since 2004, in the elections to be held that November. A progressive, she focused her campaign on criminal justice reform and advocated against plans to expand the Orleans Parish jail. She was endorsed by New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams. Hutson also received a donation of $200,000 from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, which was more than all of her other donations combined.

On November 13, Hutson placed second in the nonpartisan primary election, 13 points behind Gusman. Because Gusman failed to earn 50% of the vote, he and Hutson advanced to the general election. On December 11, Hutson won with 53% of the vote.

Tenure
Hutson was sworn in on May 2, 2022, becoming the first female Sheriff of New Orleans and the first Black female sheriff in Louisiana.

In August 2022, inmates at the Orleans Parish jail barricaded themselves inside a pod and demanded better conditions, including better food and medicine, more adequate entertainment, and a washer and dryer. After multiple days, a sprinkler system was activated inside the pod, and Hutson instructed personnel to break in, ending the standoff. None of the prisoners’ demands was considered.

In April 2023, Hutson proposed a ballot measure that would have generated $11.7 million a year for the sheriff’s office by increasing property taxes. The measure failed with 91% of voters rejecting it.

In July 2023, federal jail monitors found that jail conditions, which started falling in 2020 under Gusman, had continued to decline under Hutson. The report stated that despite cooperation from Hutson, conditions did not improve, with drug smuggling and frequent violence among inmates. It attributed this decline to a lack of resources and staff.

Hutson’s opposition to the expansion of the Orleans Parish jail, on which she centered her campaign, was ultimately unsuccessful after a federal judge in 2023 denied Hutson’s motion and ordered the city to begin construction. Hutson denounced the decision but nonetheless vowed to follow it.

Controversies
In March 2023, Hutson fired four high-ranking officials from the sheriff’s office, saying the office was going through "organizational restructuring". One of the officials, CFO David Trautenberg, claimed in a lawsuit that he was fired for opening an internal financial investigation into alleged "misuse of public funds". It was reported that the funds Trautenberg referred to, nearly $20,000 of taxpayer money, were spent for senior staff to stay in high-end hotel rooms during Mardi Gras season, most of which reportedly remained unoccupied. Hutson said there was nothing irregular about the expenditure, saying it was "money well spent".

After the 2023 Mardi Gras season, it was reported that Hutson overpaid deputies who took on additional duties during the celebrations. According to the inspector general of New Orleans, the payments violated state and federal law.

Orleans Parish Sheriff, 2021
Nonpartisan primary election, November 13, 2021

General election, December 11, 2021