New Orleans Police Chief: 'Rats Are Eating Our Marijuana'

New Orleans' police chief pleaded for a new building to serve as police headquarters on Monday, summing up her case in just two sentences. "The rats are eating our marijuana. They're all high," Anne Kirkpatrick testified during a meeting of the city's criminal justice committee, eliciting chuckles of laughter from numerous reporters.

• The issue: Kirkpatrick said rats are eating evidence from the evidence room and pooping on employees' desks, per CBS News. She also described encounters with cockroaches in the headquarters building, built in 1968, which lacks functional air-conditioning and elevators.

• The argument: "When we say we value our employees, you can't say that, and at the same time allow people to work in conditions that are not acceptable," Kirkpatrick told the committee, per WWL. "It's going to impact morale, so that has been a big factor." She also noted rats eating evidence could affect criminal cases, per the Guardian.
• The solution: City Council members voted Monday to approve a 10-year lease for two upper floors of a downtown office building across from the Caesars Superdome to be used by police at a cost of $670,000 per year, per WWL and the Guardian. Officials said that was cheaper than the $30 million cost to spruce up the current headquarters. Kirkpatrick compared efforts to fix the building to "trying to throw money at a bottomless pit."

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