There’s a rumor going round in at least one first-response service known to me that:
“The FBI has found that there was no apparent abandonment of New Orleans by the police force; that there were, in fact, 700 ‘phantom officers’
that were funded by federal grants but who existed only on paper. When asked how this could be, Mayor Nagin stated that the allegation was true; that they had a ‘virtual police force’, the existence of which, in such high numbers, was supposed to cow the criminals who believed that the force was larger than it actually was.
“The grant money was, instead, spent on special software to sustain the phantom police force, and an expensive publicity campaign about a slew of undercover officers who were watching the city’s every move.”
[Derb] Anyone else heard this? It could very well be an urban legend.
On the other hand, given what we know about Louisiana, it could VERY well be true.