Following the New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans, Louisiana, that left 14 dead, it has emerged that Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick is paid almost $340,000 and has raked in millions of dollars from the American taxpayer since 2017. Reporters questioned her competence following the attack, with no vehicle barriers having been in place. “Actually, we have them,” she admitted. “I didn’t know about them, but we have them, and so we have been able now to put them out”—too late to prevent the Islamic State-inspired attack.
Kirkpatrick, who has a background with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and has served in police departments in Chicago, Oakland, and five other cities, joined the New Orleans police in September 2023 with a salary of $337,943, making her the second-highest paid city employee. Since 2017, she has earned $2.97 million from taxpayers, including salaries and legal settlements.
The barriers police failed to deploy were purchased in 2017 and used to protect pedestrians on previous occasions. Their manufacturer described how they “allowed free pedestrian flow and emergency vehicle access through the streets while providing a solid perimeter to unwanted vehicles.” The fact pedestrians were unprotected on New Year’s Day because police leaders forgot they had them raises serious questions about whether their high salaries provide good value for money for taxpayers.
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Before her tenure in New Orleans, Kirkpatrick was the chief of police in Oakland, California, starting in January 2017 with an initial salary of $250,003, which increased to $334,090 by 2019. Her tenure in Oakland ended controversially when she was dismissed without cause in February 2020. Kirkpatrick sued for wrongful termination, claiming she was let go for exposing corruption within the Oakland Police Commission. A federal jury sided with her in 2022, awarding her $1.5 million in damages, which included a year’s salary and legal fees.
Her career also took her to various cities, including Memphis and the Chicago Police Department’s Bureau of Professional Standards. For five months in 2016, she earned $79,652.
New Orleans, under Kirkpatrick’s leadership, saw 193 homicides in 2023, leading the nation with a rate of 53.8 per 100,000 people. In 2024, violent crimes numbered 2,408, with 120 homicides, which would rank fourth worst in the country based on 2023 data.
