New Orleans Police Department Museum

In 1796, when New Orleans was still a Spanish colonial port, Baron Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet formed a full-time city police force because crime had reached such proportions. That department never stopped — making it one of the oldest continuously operating police departments in the United States. A small museum in the French Quarter traces what happened next. The New Orleans police were highly militarized from the late 1700s onward. The department policed large concentrations of enslaved people in stark contrast to police forces in the Northern United States at the time. Violence around race and power marked the century that followed. In July 1866, a white mob made up of ex-Confederate veterans attacked Black citizens marching in support of a constitutional convention. The mob killed 34 Black citizens and three white Republicans. In September 1874, five thousand members of the White League entered the city in an attempted takeover of state buildings, overwhelming the thirty-five hundred members of the integrated Metropolitan police force and occupying the state armory for three days before federal troops arrived by ship. The NOPD has a long history of civil rights violations, corruption, and poor oversight. In 2011, the Department of Justice found structural problems that led officers to engage in constitutional violations and discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, and LGBT status. The DOJ found the NOPD's culture tolerated and encouraged under-enforcement and under-investigation of violence against women. The report concluded that the NOPD had long been a troubled agency, one where basic elements of effective policing — clear policies, training, accountability, and confidence of the citizenry — had been absent for years. On the Danziger Bridge in 2005, police shot six citizens, leaving two dead and four injured. One report said the citizens were attacking Army Corps of Engineers contractors; other reports alleged people seeking refuge from the flood were fired on without provocation. Seven NOPD officers were indicted on murder charges. On August 5, 2011, a federal court jury convicted five police officers of charges related to the cover-up and deprivation of civil rights. The Danziger Bridge shootings became the most notorious policing case of the Katrina era. Following the hurricane, ninety-one officers resigned or retired and another 228 were investigated for abandoning their posts. The Department of Justice and the city of New Orleans entered into a consent decree in 2012, requiring sweeping reforms. The NOPD exited the consent decree on November 19, 2025. New Orleans police officers have worn a unique Star and Crescent badge since 1855. The star is a traditional law enforcement symbol. The crescent symbolizes the crescent shape of the Mississippi River around the city. The museum's hours vary — check before you go.