Law Enforcement Lessons Learned from Hurricane Katrina

Major disasters represent infrequent events that often require response organizations to vicariously learn from the experiences of others in order to improve their operations. A primary mechanism for such knowledge diffusion is the different practitioner and empirical journals for the organizational fields that comprise disaster response. A review of the literature for the law enforcement field, however, reveals that little attention is given to how these organizations manage actual disasters. In particular, the presentation of organizational experiences, whether through case studies or other methodologies, is very limited in the practitioner and empirical literature of this field. This represents a considerable problem for improvements of disaster response operations given that law enforcement agencies represent a key component in such efforts. The research presented in this article is an effort to fill this knowledge gap and thereby facilitate organizational learning to improve future law enforcement disaster response activities. The authors traveled to Mississippi and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina to examine the response efforts of state and local law enforcement agencies to the storm. The findings from this research are reported here in a lessons‐learned format to inform law enforcement disaster response policy.     

The story of Katrina: New Orleans and the political economy of catastrophe

This paper analyzes the public policies that lead to ‘`Katrina,’' paying particular attention to political decisions that created unusual risks in the New Orleans area. Most of the deaths from hurricane Katrina were concentrated in one place, New Orleans, and those losses arose in large part from its location in combination with its three century long effort to ‘`manage’' the risks associated with that location. Crisis management is inherently more error prone than ordinary policy making, because surprise implies the existence of significant information problems and urgency implies that time does not exist to completely address those problems (Congleton, 2005). In New Orleans the unavoidable mistakes of crisis management were compounded by policy choices made well before Katrina made landfall, as well as federalism, partisan politics, corruption, and incompetence.     

Gentrification in tourist cities: Evidence from New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina

Abstract

Tourism‐led redevelopment often provides city residents with increased opportunities for employment, leisure, and cultural enrichment, but it can also have dramatic and unpredictable effects on their lives. One of these effects involves the repercussions of redevelopment that transforms working‐class neighborhoods into middle‐ or upper‐class areas catering to tourists. We use the city of New Orleans as a case study to explore the connections between tourism and gentrification.

We first discuss the growth of tourism in New Orleans, paying particular attention to its geographic scope. We then consider the ways in which gentrification and tourism are connected in New Orleans and what their relationship adds to theories of tourism development and urban revitalization. The analysis concludes with an in‐depth look at one of the nation's oldest black neighborhoods, Tremé, where both tourism and the nonblack population have been increasing in recent years.     

The Failure of the New Orleans Levee System Following Hurricane Katrina and the Pathway Forward

Hurricane Katrina made landfall as a fast-moving Category 3 storm. Thereafter, 85 percent of Greater New Orleans was flooded, 1,500 lives were lost, and approximately 100,000 were left homeless. New Orleans' hurricane protection system failed catastrophically, leaving miles of levees without protection from waves. With global warming accelerating, smarter planning is needed for many coastal cities and communities. Surge defenses that make full use of natural and man-made components need to be augmented with sustainable development and retreat from low-lying coastal regions. Coastal restoration is the key to the future habitation of southeast Louisiana, together with an east–west levee/surge protection system across the mid-coast. This latter system must be complimented and protected by aggressive coastal wetland and barrier island restoration.     

Evaluating Racial Disparities in Hurricane Katrina Relief Using Direct Trailer Counts in New Orleans and FEMA Records

Are charges of racial disparities in the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s relief efforts in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina accurate? Limited publicly available data on trailer distribution in New Orleans are compared to an on‐site trailer count and to a complete trailer count from aerial photographs of New Orleans. The Lower Ninth Ward in Orleans Parish (98 percent Black prior to Hurricane Katrina) had significantly fewer trailers than neighboring Arabi in St. Bernard Parish (95 percent White prior to Hurricane Katrina). To control for administrative differences between parishes and socioeconomic factors, two affluent neighborhoods within Orleans Parish, Pontchartrain Park (97 percent Black prior to Hurricane Katrina) and Lakeview (94 percent White prior to Hurricane Katrina), are compared. The conclusion: racial discrepancies remain large and substantial. A number of hypotheses are developed and the implications discussed.     

The road home: an examination of the successes and challenges of housing non-profits in New Orleans since Katrina

Hurricane Katrina claimed the lives of nearly 1000 Louisiana residents and damaged about 80% of the building stock in New Orleans. Unequal protection from the hurricane and uneven recovery patterns have left some communities (predominantly low-income and black) with few options to rebuild their homes. These factors have created a high demand for housing non-profits specializing in new construction as well as low-cost home repairs. Drawing from interviews with a number of stakeholders including non-profits completing home repairs and new construction for low-income residents, this article identifies the type, amount and target areas for work done by housing non-profits in post-Katrina New Orleans. Additionally, it identifies the challenges for future work and limitations in the non-profits’ ability to address housing inequity in New Orleans.     

The "Big Questions" of Katrina and the 2005 Great Flood of New Orleans

The "big questions" associated with Hurricane Katrina and the great flood of New Orleans lie at the intersection of the natural and human-shaped environments. The interactions dominating the intersection of the two environments are found in the social-political-economic system, culture and history, intergovernmental relations, and law. The big questions are not whether specific individuals were to blame for the destruction of lives and property, and they do not begin with the slow and inadequate intergovernmental response to the disaster. Instead, the big questions involve the roles of individuals, governments, and private markets in creating so-called natural disasters; whether government, through its lead role in the emergency management system, is incompetent, or whether capability and performance in protecting life and property have been eroded through a long-term "hollowing out" process; and whether Katrina's lessons will be learned or merely noted.     

Beyond Enforcement: Welcomeness,Local Law Enforcement,and Immigrants

Studies of local law enforcement actions toward immigrants show that while some cities engage in enforcement, many others do not. The extent and determinants of enforcement have been assessed, but these studies have not evaluated the full range of practices, including welcoming practices, toward immigrants. This article introduces the concept of “welcomeness,” develops a framework for measuring it, and, using a nationwide survey of local police departments, examines how widely departments are welcoming (or unwelcoming) to immigrants. The data show that many police departments have consciously and deliberately developed practices intended to foster positive relationships between the police and immigrants and to encourage immigrants to call the police for assistance.

Practitioner Points

• Welcomeness encompasses a range of practices toward immigrants that are often intentionally created, thoughtfully implemented, and found in a variety of communities.
• The dimensions of welcomeness provide a framework for police departments to assess their practices and provide a model for police departments that want to engage positively with immigrants.
• Welcoming practices may improve interactions between police officers and immigrants and may improve immigrants’ perceptions of local law enforcement.
• Welcoming police departments often have a deeper commitment to community policing.

     

Pricing Outputs: A Case Study in Law Enforcement

This paper discusses the advantages and limitations of economic evaluation as a measurement methodology within the Australian government's outcome and output framework including preliminary benefit–cost analysis of Australian Federal Police investigations. The results suggest that the Australian Federal Police is returning over $5 to the community for every dollar invested in fraud and drug investigations. It is concluded that benefit–cost analysis is a useful tool for comparing the price of an output to the value of an outcome. The method has limitations. Not all outcomes will admit of easy assessment and the information may be difficult to collect. However, the use of surrogate measures and extrapolation of results may overcome most of these limitations.     

执法权若干理论问题探究--兼对当前广义执法概念的质疑

执法权是任何国家最基本、最具活力的一项权力,它在国家权力配置过程中有着举足轻重的作用;同时,执法权科学配置与否直接与国家的兴衰、国家的法治建设水平息息相关.在我国,关于执法权的法律特性、执法权的产生与发展演变、执法权的不同设置模式等重要理论问题急需从法理学的视角进行深入探讨,以便为当前的政治体制改革,尤其是执法体制改革提供理论参考.     

论我国执法制度的重理

执法制度的重理是我国改善执法状况、提高执法水平的需要，也是我国加入WT0后政府行为适应调整的需要。根据目前我国执法中存在的问题，我国执法制度的重理主要涉及执法形式重理、执法组织重理、国家公务员管理重理、执法方式重理、执法程序重理等。     

Terrorism,Intelligence and Law Enforcement: Learning the Right Lessons

More than a generation ago, in the wake of investigations by the US Congress into improprieties carried out by US intelligence agencies, the United States, in effect, raised the wall between intelligence and law enforcement in order to protect the liberties of Americans. For similar reasons, its Cold War institutions enshrined distinctions between foreign and domestic, and public and private. The CIA was and is, for instance, enjoined from law enforcement and domestic activity.

Those distinctions served the country tolerably well during the Cold War but set it up to fail on September 11. Now, a rethinking of them is underway, as the balance between security and liberty is re-struck. It is imperative, though, to learn the right lessons on September 11. That means thinking carefully and proceeding slowly as changes are made. It also means carefully evaluating the effects of proposed changes, especially to avoid ‘pain for no gain’ measures that do inconvenience people, or even affect their liberties, for little or no gain in the war on terrorism.     

何谓“明显违法”？——《公务员法》实施中不容回避的一个难题

在责任追究的逻辑处理上,“明显违法”这一概念帮助《公务员法》的立法者从服从上级与法治原则之间的两难境地中解脱出来。但是,“明显违法”的概念却招致了是否法言法语的众多质疑,也使如何界定“明显违法”成为《公务员法》实施后不容回避的一个难题。“明显违法”界定的主体应该是责任追究机关,界定的程序必须是法定程序,界定的标准可以进一步细化,而且需要将宪法列入不能明显违背的“法”的范围。     

中国反垄断执法机构评析

我国反垄断法建立了中国反垄断执法程序制度的基本框架,但反垄断执法机构存在多头执法、交叉执法等诸多缺陷,而执法机制的有效性是反垄断法有效实施的重要保障。本文对中国反垄断执法机构的现状进行了评析,并结合我国反垄断执法的实践以及外国经验的比较借鉴等因素,通过提高反垄断执法机构的权威性和独立性,增强《反垄断法》的操作性,建立多机构执法的协调机制,健全执法人员任命机制,完善当事人的救济权等途径,以期建立符合中国国情、保证反垄断法有效实施的执法体制。