NOPD Superintendent Kirkpatrick appears at NCJW luncheon honoring Barbara Kaplinsky

By ALAN SMASON, Exclusive to the CCJN

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick was the featured speaker at the recent final event for the Greater New Orleans Section of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) on June 30. Kirkpatrick, a veteran of more than three decades of police work, thrilled the attendees at the event at the Metairie Country Club where former NCJW president Barbara Kaplinsky was honored with the Harold A. Salmon Award for her outstanding service to the organization.

NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick speaks at the NCJW final event at the Metairie Country Club on June 30, 2024. (Photo by Alan Smason)

Kirkpatrick, a native of Memphis, related to the audience that when she was the police chief of Oakland, the San Francisco Section of NCJW provided her with a fact-finding trip to Israel to learn about the trafficking of women. Through the years, she added, she has enjoyed a very close relationship with the various Jewish communities where she served.

“I want you to know you do indeed – without a question – have my support and anything or any need that you have, we are here for you,” Kirkpatrick emphasized.

The superintendent first related her professional career that began after her graduation from college. Her father had advised her that unlike her older siblings, she was not especially suited to follow them in the family’s hotel and real estate development businesses. “”Anne, you do not have hospitality personality,'” she recalled humorously to the audience. “‘You need to find a job where the customer doesn’t have to be correct all the time.'” 

“That’s exactly what police work is all about,” she noted. “None of my clients were correct.”

She started with the Memphis Police Department, attending school at night to obtain a master’s degree in psychology to add to her bachelor’s degree in business.

NOPD Superintendent of Police Anne Kirkpatrick. (Photo by Alan Smason)

After four years in Memphis with two degrees and no husband, she decided to make a lateral move to a police department in a suburb of Seattle. There she attended law school at night and became a practicing attorney in the State of Washington for 34 years while also working as a uniformed police officer. Still, after three degrees, no husband.

She moved up in the ranks and became the second woman in Washington to become a chief of police serving as chief in two suburb cities around Seattle and Tacoma. Her career later took her to Chicago and then to Oakland, California.

Kirkpatrick was caught up in a scandal in the time she was in Oakland where she became a whistleblower to call attention to ongoing criminal activity within the ranks of the department, which resulted in her dismissal. She later sued for wrongful termination and won her case, she added.

Over the course of the last three years, she said she received many invitations to lead police forces around the country, but the call from New Orleans was most interesting to her. “That got my attention. I must say New Orleans drew me,” she said.

“Your police department really has transformed,” Kirkpatrick boasted. She cited statistics that show that homicides declined in the city by 40% last year. “That’s not by accident, folks. We work a strategy. It’s very intentional,” she declared. She also noted that New Orleans will shortly move into a probation status with the federal consent decree that governed the police department.

Barbara Kaplinsky, left, receives the Harold Salmon Award from NCJW Section president Gail Chalew. (Photo by Alan Smason)

Kirkpatrick spoke about the challenges facing the NOPD with the permit-less carrying of handguns that will be legal in Louisiana starting on August 1. She said she was not in favor of the law recently passed by the Louisiana State Legislature and signed into law by Governor Jeff Landry.

“You’ve removed  a tool from the police department to deal with crime, violent crime particularly,” she stated. “That is why I am not in favor of permit-less carry.” 

On a lighter note, before she left to attend another luncheon, Kirkpatrick talked about her mounted escort Patrick that she rides at Mardi Gras. “Patrick is a rock star,” she beamed.

NCJW Section president Gail Chalew presented Barbara Kaplinsky with the Harold Salmon Award, an award that is given to significant leaders and supporters for their service to the NCJW. The last time the award had been presented to an NCJW member was in 2020, Chalew noted.

“It’s only when a leader rises to the top…that we choose to recognize that individual,” Chalew said and added that she had occupied most every post within the organizatin. 

Barbara Kaplinsky, center, holds flowers while framed by her husband Marc and son rabbinic candidate David Kaplinsky. (Photo by Alan Smason)

In speaking about Kaplinsky’s work with the NCJW, Chalew noted she had worked with several outside organizations including The Junior League, Together New Orleans and the United Way to follow her passions for advocacy for the poor, the needy and those who have been wrongly incarcerated.

“As you can imagine, I am so grateful and happy today,” Kaplinsky said after receiving her award.  She recalled how she had moved to New Orleans as part of her career with the United Way. But her journey covered more than great distances. She grew up in Michigan, a part of a Catholic family of nine and shortly after her move to the Crescent City fell in love with Judaism and its way of life. She converted in her late 30s. 

She acknowleged many members by name who had supported her in her work with NCJW.

Kaplinsky urged other rank and file members of the NCJW to continue to work towards bettering their local community through their actions. 

“If you want to leave this world better than you found it, volunteering and advocating is the way to make it happen,” she added. “More than any other election, it is critical that we all vote and that we encourage our families and friends to do the same.”

Kaplinsky ended by reminding those in attendance of a portion of the Jewish prayer for peace. “It motivates every aspect of my life,” she said.

“It says ‘We do not come into being  to hate or destroy. We have come into being to praise, to labor and to love.’ So today know that for all you do, I praise all of you. I love you all very much and i will continue to labor for NCJW and this wonderful community into my golden years, which is just around the corner.”