NEWS | CIVIC ACCOUNTABILITY

A physician used public comment to question the city's drone plans, from their use in psychiatric emergencies to the department's record on trust. The public record, and NOPD's own responses, run in more than one direction.

By Kim M. Braud | August 5, 2026

NEW ORLEANS - The City Council on Wednesday passed an ordinance requiring the police department to report periodically on its use of drones. The measure, Ordinance Calendar No. 35,523, introduced by Councilmember Willard, amends the city code to add a standing reporting requirement for the department's drone program. It passed without opposition.

During the public comment period, Dr. Sunni Mun, who identified herself as a physician, told members she had grown alarmed after a French Quarter district meeting where the use of drones in psychiatric emergencies was discussed. As a physician, she said, that prospect concerned her, and she wanted to understand what protocol would govern it. She tied the concern to a broader question: whether residents can rely on what the department tells them about the program.

What Dr. Moon told the Council

To explain her skepticism, Moon pointed to the department's history with complaints of sexual and domestic violence. In her words, "between 2014 and 2022, a complaint of sexual misconduct, intimate partner violence, or harassment was made against a NOPD officer every 10 days," and that "190 police officers were accused of domestic violence or sexual misconduct."

Her numbers track closely to a documented source, with one difference worth noting. The figures come from a November 2022 report, "Police Sexual Violence in New Orleans," compiled by the Umbrella Coalition, a group of local and national civil rights organizations. That report covers 2014 through 2020, not 2022, and it counted 236 complaints against 189 officers. The "every 10 days" pace and the roughly 190 officers are the report's own findings. Moon stated a slightly wider year range at the podium.

Between 2014 and 2020, the coalition counted 236 complaints against 189 New Orleans police officers.

Where the numbers come from, and how NOPD answers them

The coalition drew on complaint records held by NOPD's Public Integrity Bureau, the department's internal affairs unit. Its account, reported by The Appeal, describes allegations ranging from harassment to assault.

NOPD has disputed how those numbers are read. A department spokesperson told The Appeal that NOPD sustained only about 3 percent of the complaints involving sexual or intimate partner violence over that period. A sustained finding means investigators concluded the allegation was supported. The other dispositions, unfounded, exonerated, and not sustained, do not carry that conclusion, and "not sustained" in particular means investigators found the evidence insufficient to prove or disprove the claim, not that the complaint was false.

The federal monitor overseeing the department at the time reviewed the coalition's work independently. In a July 2023 special report, the monitoring team said it was troubled by the allegations and conducted its own review of sexual and intimate violence complaints. It also said it could not always tell how the coalition had classified a given complaint. The monitor neither fully validated nor dismissed the report's conclusions.

A more recent flashpoint: the drone weapons draft

Moon's comment landed against a fresher dispute, one specific to the drones themselves.

NOPD has used drones citywide since 2024, and its original policy prohibited equipping them with weapons. In June 2026, a revised version of the department's operations manual appeared on its website. As 404 Media first reported and Verite News confirmed, the revised Chapter 43.5 said drones could be equipped with weapons with the written approval of the Superintendent of Police. The draft carried a June 21, 2026 effective date.

Three days later, on June 24, the Council voted 4 to 3 to fund an expansion of the Drone as First Responder program in the French Quarter, including roughly $250,000 for infrastructure tied to Skydio, the department's drone supplier. On June 30 and July 1, the weapons language disappeared and was replaced. The current manual, dated July 1, reads that drones "shall not be equipped with weapons or hazardous materials of any kind."

NOPD has called the June version an early draft posted for review before the current policy was adopted. The department has not publicly explained who wrote the draft, who posted it, or why a document with an effective date sat on its site while the Council voted on drone funding. Eye on Surveillance, a local group, said it spotted the change and alerted council members before the reversal.

"We are extremely concerned because there is a history of breach of trust from NOPD. And this is just one instance of it," - Edith Romero, Eye on Surveillance, to Verite News.

The undercounted sexual offense cases

The record also includes a reporting failure the department disclosed itself. In April 2024, NOPD acknowledged that it had undercounted sex crimes reported to state and federal databases for two years, as WWL-TV and NOLA.com reported.

For 2021, NOPD had submitted 501 rapes to the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement. A review put the corrected total at 696, an undercount of 195 cases. For 2022, the reported figure of 442 rose to 672 on review, an undercount of 223. The department attributed the gap to a records system that was not compliant with the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System. Civil rights attorney Mary Howell and a researcher flagged the discrepancy that prompted the review.

Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick framed the disclosure as evidence of the department's transparency. The city's Independent Police Monitor, Stella Cziment, called the undercount and its handling deeply concerning, and said she had not been told about the incorrect data until that week.

The oversight that just ended

The backdrop to all of it is federal. A Justice Department investigation that opened in 2010 found NOPD had engaged in a pattern of conduct that violated the Constitution and federal civil rights law, and in 2013 the city entered a consent decree that placed the department under court supervision. That oversight ended on November 19, 2025, when U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan terminated the decree, citing sustained reforms in use of force, stops and searches, and other areas.

The end of oversight did not settle the trust question. At the final proceeding, Morgan defended the decree's length and cost, saying the alternative was more expensive. Reform and civil rights advocates, including the ACLU of Louisiana, argued the exit was premature and that racial disparities in use of force remained.

What is unresolved

Several questions raised by the recent episode have not been answered publicly. NOPD has not identified who authored or posted the June drone draft. It has not said when the Council learned that the weapons language was live, or whether members knew before the June 24 vote.

The reporting ordinance the Council passed Wednesday does not answer those questions directly. It sets a schedule for the department to disclose how the drones are used going forward, which is a record residents did not previously have.

Kim M. Braud is the Founder & Editor of Evans Cutchmore Press, an independent newsroom covering Louisiana and the Gulf South. Her reporting focuses on government accountability, infrastructure, business, culture, and the public policies that shape communities. Her work combines investigative journalism, public records research, and documentary storytelling.

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