Edwin P. Compass, III is a former

Chief of Police A chief of police (COP) is the title given to an appointed official or an elected one in the command hierarchy, chain of command of a police department, particularly in North America. A chief of police may also be known as a police chief or somet ...

of the

New Orleans Police Department The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) has primary responsibility for law enforcement in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. The department's jurisdiction covers all of Orleans Parish, Louisiana, Orleans Parish, while the city itself is div ...

. He resigned as Chief of Police on September 27, 2005. Compass, who earlier said he was organizing a tribunal to handle the cases of 249 officers who left their posts without permission during

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

, did not give any reason for his resignation. Compass' resignation followed a few days after an emergency

injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...

was handed down, prohibiting him “from confiscating lawfully-possessed firearms from citizens ... “ Compass, who has been nicknamed "AWOL" by his former colleagues, has declared that he was forced to resign his post. His actions subsequently led to the passage of the Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act.

References

# # # # Living people Year of birth missing (living people) African-American police officers 21st-century African-American people Chiefs of the New Orleans Police Department {{US-law-enforcement-bio-stub