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The Southern University at New Orleans Police Department (SUNOPD) is a community-oriented police agency and, as such, is dedicated to providing the best possible service to the faculty, staff, students, and visitors. We strive to make your contact with the department as professional, courteous, and informative as possible. If any of SUNOPD has presented him/herself in an exemplary manner, you may call the department and recommend that he/she be commended for their service. On the other hand, if you have an unpleasant or unprofessional experience with an employee of SUNOPD, you may choose to register a complaint with the department.

This public service webpage is designed to provide you with information about the process for commending a police department employee or for registering a legitimate complaint against a police department employee.

 

If an employee has done a good job and you want to say thanks, we would appreciate hearing from you. You may call or visit the police department during regular business hours and ask to speak to a supervisor. You can even send us a letter to our mailing address, see below, or email outlining the circumstances of how you were helped or impressed by the employee. Please try to obtain the officer's name when providing the commendation information.

After the commendation is received, it will be forwarded through the officer's chain of command and ultimately reviewed by the Chief of Police. After the review, the officer could receive a letter of recognition, a letter of commendation, or even an award presented by the Chief of Police.

This type of notoriety is greatly appreciated by SUNOPD, and you can be assured that we will continue to serve the community in the most courteous and professional manner possible.

We encourage you to let us know if you have a negative experience with any of our officers. This experience may have resulted in police officer misconduct or employee misconduct. In any event, each legitimate complaint against departmental employees is taken seriously and handled with the utmost professionalism.

If you have a complaint you should first call the department at 504-286-5290 and ask to speak with the involved officer's supervisor. If the officer's supervisor is unavailable, then you may be forwarded to the next available supervisor.

When filing a complaint, it is important that you remember the name of the police officer (if known), the date and approximate time of the incident, any available witness names, and the circumstances outlining any wrongdoing committed by the officer. SUNOPD policy requires that complaints involving serious misconduct be placed in writing and signed by the person making the complaint. If there are valid reasons this cannot be done, we will try to make other arrangements.

Depending on the seriousness of the allegations against the officer, the Chief of Police’s designee, Internal Affairs, or the officer’s supervisor may investigate the complaint. The investigation will be thoroughly reviewed to determine if the officer’s actions violated any criminal laws and /or departmental policies or procedures. Once the investigation is completed and officially closed, you will be sent a letter outlining the disposition of the complaint.

If the complaint is sustained (proven true), the officer will receive the appropriate training or disciplinary action. These actions are counseling, oral reprimand, written reprimand, suspension, demotion, or termination.

In the event that your complaint is not supported by sufficient evidence, the complaint will be not sustained. If the complaint is proven false or not factual, the disposition will be unfounded. If the incident complained of occurred, but the employee's actions are deemed lawful and proper, the disposition will be exonerated.

If it becomes necessary that you register a complaint against an officer of SUNOPD, you can be assured it will be given a fair and thorough investigation. You can also be assured that the Chief of Police will review your complaint.

Please do not hesitate to commend an officer or file a complaint when necessary.

SUNOPD is committed to providing and maintaining a safe and secure environment for its community members to study, work, live, conduct research, and provide the highest quality police service to our community. One way to evaluate our level of professional service is to obtain feedback from students, visitors, faculty, and staff members who have had to interact with our officers in the past. We hope to continually improve our efforts and identify areas needing attention through this feedback. These things will greatly improve SUNO Police's ability to provide quality service in an unprecedented manner to our community.

Therefore, we are asking SUNO community members, such as yourself, who have recently requested service or response from the Police Department to assist us by taking a few minutes to complete this survey. Your input is valued and will affect future management decisions. Should you desire to discuss these matters in person, I would be happy to meet with you. Thank you for your cooperation and interest in helping us evaluate Police Department Operations.