The New Orleans Police Department said that it’s keeping updated numbers on where National Guard troops are helping out in the city. However, the department isn’t giving that information to anyone.
Since the guard arrived in the summer of 2006 -- the guard has assisted police officers on more than 6,000 arrests. Guard members do not make arrests.
"They report to the district commanders for the NOPD," said Lt. General Bennett J. Landrneau. He’s the man in charge of the guard in Louisiana.
WDSU filed an information request for guard statistics with the NOPD but the information was never provided.
Thursday, Police Superintendent Warren Riley appeared before the city council, who asked why the public records have not been provided.
"My questions are in the reporting of information on arrests and where they are located and the time of day, that's stuff the public has asked for that they cannot get from the NOPD?" said City Council Vice-President Arnie Fielkow.
Riley replied that he was unaware that the public was asking for the information and that the department could pull it up.
After Riley made that comment, the WDSU I-Team contacted the police department again. Once again requesting the information filed in the public records request from June.
At the time, the department told WDSU it could not provide the records on National Guard activity because the information couldn't be compiled.
But Thursday at City Hall, Riley made the following statement.
"It's not a problem for us -- the National Guard, they track their own arrests, we track all arrests, but we can get that info from the National Guard," Riley said.
Maj. Michael Kazmierzak said the guard works in support of the police department at the direction of the governor.
"Since the National Guard is only in support of law enforcement, the NOPD makes the actual arrest," Kazmierzak said.
