Harrington not going to New Orleans

St. Paul police chief
St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington at a media briefing regarding the fatal shooting of a Maplewood police officer and a suspect Saturday, May 1, 2010 in St. Paul.
Screen grab from video

New Orleans has decided not to hire retiring St. Paul police chief John Harrington as the next top cop in the Big Easy.

Instead, Nashville police chief Ronal Serpas will return to his native New Orleans to become the city's new police chief - the first white police chief since the early 1980s.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu made the announcement Thursday, a day after he asked the U.S. Justice Department to send a team to help reorganize the troubled police department.

The New Orleans department is the subject of several federal investigations.

Serpas left the New Orleans Police Department in 2001 to become chief of the Washington State Patrol. He later moved to Nashville where he oversees 1,351 officers in a city of about 632,000.

Harrington retires June 30. He announced his plans last December, saying he has accomplished what he set out to do.

Harrington has been chief since June 2004.

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