Rats have gotten into drug evidence in a New Orleans police station.
The ageing headquarters of the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) have become so overrun with vermin that rats have been feasting on confiscated marijuana, according to Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick. She described the building, which has housed the NOPD since 1968, as suffering from mould, cockroaches, and broken air conditioning and elevators. Officers have even reported finding rat droppings on their desks.
"The rats eating our marijuana, they're all high," Anne Kirkpatrick told Nola.com.
Kirkpatrick told the New Orleans City Council that these conditions are not only unsanitary but also demoralising to staff and unappealing to potential recruits.
"It is not just at police headquarters. It is all the districts. The uncleanliness is off the charts," Kirkpatrick said. "The janitorial cleaning team deserves an award for trying to clean what is uncleanable."
The department is currently seeking approval for a temporary relocation to a high-rise building downtown while plans are made for a permanent new headquarters.
The unsanitary conditions have even led to the marijuana stored as evidence being eaten by rats. While experts say it is unlikely the rats are getting "high" in the same way humans do, the situation highlights the dire need for the NOPD to move to a new facility. The City Council is expected to vote on the temporary relocation proposal soon.
"I foresee most of the criminal justice agencies will have to be temporarily housed as we address these old decrepit buildings," said Gilbert Montano, the chief administrative officer, according to the Nola.com report.
"Right now, we are addressing police headquarters because it is in dire straits."
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