The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) has taken a critical step toward ending more than a decade of federal oversight following a damning Department of Justice report dating back to 2011.

After 12 years under a sprawling, court-enforced reform agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the plan is a major step toward independence.

U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan said the police department has transformed itself into a more transparent and accountable agency.

Judge Susie Morgan granted the NOPD a two-year sustainment period, signaling the beginning of the end of the consent decree.

The US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana ruled on Tuesday that the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) can end its longstanding federal oversight, thus approving the sustainment

After more than a decade under federal oversight, the New Orleans Police Department will finally have a chance to prove that it can police itself, a judge ruled Tuesday.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell's administration has joined Attorney General Liz Murrill in asking a federal judge to rule on a motion to end the long-running consent decree over the city's police force.

In a joint statement, Governor Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill said, “Now is the time to end NOPD’s consent decree and return control of policing to the City—the brave men and women who serve in the NOPD deserve recognition for the hard work and commitment to this community that they have demonstrated over the last decade.”

The federal judge overseeing the New Orleans Police Department’s decade-long consent decree is poised to make a pivotal decision — whether to begin to wind down the reform agreement that has touched nearly every aspect of policing in the city.

A judge says the New Orleans Police Department can begin the process of ending longstanding federal oversight. U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan’s ruling Tuesday came in response to a request

NEW ORLEANS (AP ... request from the city and the Justice Department to wind down the monitoring program. U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan said the police department has transformed itself ...

In a federal courtroom packed with NOPD's top brass and community members, Judge Susie Morgan heard the New Orleans Police Department's plans for a sustainment period. The City of New Orleans and the Department of Justice filed a joint motion to begin the sustainment period.