Report: Probes of police shootings lax

NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 13 (UPI) -- New Orleans officials did only cursory probes of the police shootings of 10 civilians after Hurricane Katrina, interviews and internal police documents show.

Ten civilians were shot by police and at least four of them died in the chaotic days following Katrina's Aug. 29, 2005, landfall, with some of the incidents prompting a federal probe of the New Orleans Police Department.

But a review internal police documents by The (New Orleans) Times Picayune, PBS's "Frontline" and ProPublica, a non-profit investigative newsroom, and published Sunday in the newspaper indicated that the police department performed only casual investigations before exonerating accused fellow officers.

The Times-Picayune said officers who were present when the post-Kartrina shootings happened took no statements from witnesses -- even failing to obtain their names and phone numbers -- and did not collect such physical evidence as weapons and bullet casings.

Detectives following up later did little more than talk to the officers involved in interviews sometimes lasting only only seven minutes, the newspaper said.

NOPD Commander Bob Young told the newspaper the department would not comment on any of the incidents because of the federal inquiries.