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New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation
The New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation is a private partnership, established in 1996 by local business leaders, which works with the New Orleans Police Department and elements of the criminal justice system in the city of New Orleans to reduce crime by developing a more efficient and effective system of policing.

Founding
After the Antoinette Frank incident, as well as several other high-profile incidents involving police corruption in New Orleans, local community leaders decided to take it upon themselves to play a more involved role in the criminal justice system in the city. They began by targeting corruption and inefficiency within the N.O.P.D. In conjunction with respected police consultants ____________, the board of the New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation developed a comprehensive plan to overhaul the police department. In conjunction with Superintendent Pennington, this plan was presented to the city as the 1996 Plan

The 1996 Plan
The plan had several phases, including a reorganization of the NOPD, rooting out corruption within the ranks of the police department, streamlining the organization, and recruiting a better class of officers to avoid the systematic problems that had long plagued the department. The Plan brought the COMSTAT policing model to New Orleans and created the Public Integrity Bureau which was empowered to investigate and remove officers from the force for corruption The Plan resulted in a massive reduction in crime, particularly the murder rate, which had peaked with New Orleans in 1995, the year New Orleans was decalared the "Murder Captial of the World".

Early 2000s
Signs of weakness began to appear in the early years of the new century, wtih crime rates beginning to rise once again. The New Orleans Police Foundation began a hefty recruitng effort and branched out into other areas of the criminal justice system, upgrading computer and information systems to support policing.

Katrina
Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005 and caused an almost 30% reduction in the police force. In the wake of Katrina, the Police and Justice Foundation branched out into a variety of logistics and support roles, incluidng securing housing for first responders and reissuing bulletproof vests, purchased through private donations, to refit the battered departmnet. In addition, several notable incidents, incluidng teh bridge shootings and the murder of __________ led incoming Mayor Mitch Landrieu to enter into a consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice. A three year hiring freeze, made necessary by the city's precarious financial position, exacerbated the issues already faced by the decimated NOPD.

Post-Katrina
The New Orleans Police and Justice FOundation provided a forum for local business and community leaders to coordinate a rebuilding effort for the NOPD. Aware of the issues that had already begun to manifest pre-Katrina, the NOPJF identified recruiting, technology, and officer retention as key areas for improvement that could most effectively restore the robust police force that had been so effective in the late 90s. Although the city had last almost half of its pre-hurricane population, the 320 sq mi footprint was now patrolled by only 1,100 sworn officers. As a first step, the NOPJF took the lead on an extensive recruiting campaign, pulling together local and national assets to rebuild the force. Simaltaneously, the NOPJF began to focus on how to stymie the loss of officers from the NOPD. Pay raises that had occurred under the 1996 Plan were constrained by the fiscal limitations of the city budget and so the NOPJF focused on supporting the NOPD through the creation of a Tragedy Fund, coordination of private donations during the Mardi Gras season (called Adopt-a-Cop), the adminsitration of a youth-oriented summer camp (Cops-for-Kids), the registration of security cameras citywide (SafeCam NOLA), and the installation of security cameras in high-crime areas (Adopt-a-Block). Finally, the NOPJF developed, funded, and implemented a series of IT improvements to allow the seamless transfer of information between the DA, Public Defender, Sherrif, Courts, and Police Department (OPISIS) as well as a complete overhaul of the evidence management system and a crime-tracking database available internally to the police department and externally to citizens. These state-of-the-art systems led to higher conviction rates, greater efficiency, and the ability to more proactively use officers on the streets instead.

Modern Day
The NOPJF continues to play a vital role in New Orleans civic life, with a board comprised of business and community leaders as well as close ties to the police department. As the only non-profit dedicated to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the police force, the NOPJF operates as unique liason between civic leaders and the police force. In addition to their recruiting efforts, community safety initiatives, and technological enhancements, the NOPJF routinely partners to work on special projects with other interested parties, acts as fiscal agent for grants and gifts, and acts as a check-writer for portions of the NOPD detail. With a full-time staff of less than 5 people at any given time, the NOPJF continues to operate at a high degree of efficiency due to generous time committments from its board, supporters, and the community at large.

Charity Navigator Ratings
Although the NOPJF has limited unrestricted assets and lacks a significant endowment, the organization provides fiscal agent services on millions of dollars in grants every year. The organization has the highest possible rating on Charity Navigator, indicating a high degree of efficiency and transparency.