The "How Wonderful Are We" show --Updated

The Mayor, the Chief of Police and the US Department of Justice are expected to release the results of the DOJ's examination of the police department at a press conference this morning. I'll be shocked if the report says anything other than, "Things were a little weird but the guys in charge now are awesome and they are fixing it." It's what the politically astute Serpas and Landrieu invited DOJ here for in the first place. It's also why the release of this survey which appears to reinforce the theme was timed the way it was.

Update: The preliminary tweetering suggests the DOJ report may be a heavier issue than I thought.

Upperdate: As I was saying in the comments, It isn't yet clear that DOJ recommended any specific actions. If they do not, then there really isn't much point to what we just saw. I just read a report on what might be expected.

It is widely expected that the department's review will eventually lead to formal oversight of the department through a consent decree, which will be negotiated between the Justice Department and the city. Landrieu has already indicated he welcomes this kind of formal oversight, in which the NOPD will have to implement specific reforms outlined in the decree. The effort would be overseen by a federal judge and independent monitor.

But at this point, it isn't clear to me that anyone at the press conference addressed this issue directly.

The gist of the presser still appears to be, "Yes, NOPD is fucked up but this administration wants to fix it" And of course, at this very moment, Serpas is at City Council using the event to push his own questionable wish to subvert Civil Service hiring rules. In other words, I'm not impressed yet. Or shocked.

Uppestdate: Report available online from the DOJ site.

Uppesterdate: From CNN

"Our next step will be to work with the (police) department to develop a consent decree, which will involve federal oversight," (Assistant AG Thomas Perez) said.

Perez said as part of that consent decree, benchmarks will be established to make sure the police department is improving. He said the benchmarks will address areas such as racial profiling and use of force.

Looks like today was a big day after all. Still the Mayor and the Chief made a deft political play and frankly I don't have much confidence that this Chief would have changed much on his own.