The Phantom Cops of New Orleans

Yesterday the police chief of New Orleans made news when he suddenly retired. No doubt he's had a tough four weeks, but it looks like things were just about to get tougher for him. One of the big stories in the immediate aftermath of Katrina was the disappearance of hundreds of the city's cops. Now it looks like some of those officers may have never existed in the first place (from Political Diary):

Leaving the city of New Orleans even less of a leg to stand on was the performance of its police force, much of which disintegrated during Katrina. Yesterday, police Superintendent Eddie Compass suddenly resigned even as his department was preparing to hold disciplinary hearings for 259 police officers who had left their posts without permission during the storm. Originally, over 500 officers were said to have been deserters, but the FBI is discovering that many of them fact didn't shirk their duty -- because they didn't exist. An investigation is uncovering evidence that many were "ghost" employees put on the payroll by others who pocketed their paychecks.

None of this surprises New Orleans residents, who have seen more than 50 police officers go to prison in the last dozen years, two of them to death row. When one police district was caught altering its crime data last year, the now-departed Chief Compass said: "I don't need an outside agency coming in. I think we have proven that we are capable of taking care of our own house." Clearly that's not the case. Here's hoping the federal aid flowing into the city includes some requirements that the local police force be rebuilt from the ground up.

Now, perhaps, it's time to take an even harder look at the mayor.