NOPD leadership changes
Key New Orleans police leaders shifted
Commanders change for 7th District
The Times-Picayune
Saturday, October 20, 2007
By Brendan McCarthy
New Orleans Police Department leaders shifted several top commanders this week, police sources said.
Capt. Jerome Laviolette, the commander of the 7th District, which encompasses the 100-square-mile region east of the Industrial Canal, has been moved to the narcotics bureau, according to police sources.
Meanwhile, the head of that division, Capt. Michael Glasser, will be taking over the 7th District, which has been a hotbed of violent crime recently.
NOPD spokesman Sgt. Joe Narcisse could not be reached for comment on the moves.
In other personnel moves, sources said NOPD Superintendent Warren Riley named Capt. Jeff Winn, a former Marine gunnery sergeant who served in Kuwait and Iraq, the commander of the criminal intelligence division. Winn, who joined the force in 1985, had been stationed in the training academy. He replaces Capt. Craig Jennings, who retired last month.
Riley also moved Capt. Tim Bayard from the juvenile bureau into the homicide division, sources said.
Both Winn and Bayard were key organizers of the police rescue efforts in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina and have a large loyal following among the department’s rank-and-file. Some officers were upset when Riley moved the high-profile pair into out-of-the-way desk jobs last year.
Capt. Thomas Smegal will be taking over Bayard’s position in the juvenile division, sources said.
In the 7th District leadership change, Riley shifted Laviolette, a 22-year veteran, to narcotics on Thursday, several sources said. Laviolette, who began leading the 7th District in April 2006, had worked in narcotics in the early 1990s.
Glasser, a 24-year veteran who spent many years working in the narcotics squad, will now command one of the most flood-ravaged districts in the city. Glasser was recently promoted to captain. He heads the Police Association of New Orleans.
The NOPD’s 7th District is the largest in the city, but one of the lowest-staffed. The area has been besieged in recent months by a spate of armed home invasions and burglaries, several of which were fatal. Contractors and laborers have become a frequent target of stickup crews.
Officers in that district worked out of trailers until May, when a local businessman donated 3,600 square feet of corporate office space.
