The United States Justice Department spent 10 months investigating the city’s police department, at the mayor’s request, and discovered a deeply dysfunctional and corrupt system, one that regularly abuses its power and the city’s residents.

New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu contacted federal officials just after he took office, making good on a campaign promise to clean up the Crescent City’s long dirty police department. The first step? Figuring out just how widespread the problem actually was.

The investigation uncovered some shocking truths about the New Orleans Police Department, truths that reek of racial profiling and discrimination. For every one white person that is arrested in the city, 16 blacks are arrested, and calls for police assistance by non-English speakers were often unanswered.

But the troubling news doesn’t stop there. Reports of the use of excessive force by officers are widespread and the department has been accused of failing to investigate serious crimes.

So what’s next for the N.O.P.D? How does this troubled department ‘make it right’?

Obviously, city officials can’t be trusted to do this alone; they’ve dropped the ball for far too long. Federal oversight is necessary to help clean up the department and manage it until it proves it can manage itself properly.

New Orleans has made great progress since Hurricane Katrina roared in, causing billions in damage and taking thousands of lives. But the city, with all of its history and culture, cannot be truly great – or say it has rebounded – until its police department gets on the right side of the law.

The Gulf Coast has progressed slowly and steadily since it was hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In New Orleans, however, many residents feel that more can – and should – be done. There are still nearly 66,000 unoccupied homes in the city, school enrollment is at 78 percent of its pre-Katrina levels, home sales are down 39 percent from four years ago and rents have increased by 40 percent in that same time period.

Charity Hospital, one of the city’s largest state-run hospitals, was damaged heavily by Katrina. It has not reopened and it doesn’t look it will. Many of the city’s poor and elderly were able to receive free and low cost medical services there; they are now redirected to hospitals that are much farther from their homes. Like the hospital, many local businesses – dry cleaners, car repair shops and more – didn’t reopen after the storm, resulting in a lack of services to a city that has so much need. Most importantly, elected officials from the area still cannot definitively say whether or not New Orleans’ levee system is strong enough to protect the city from a major hurricane.

Jefferson did not hold office when he was convicted – he lost his seat in a December race, after he was indicted. But his corruption case is not an isolated one. According to the FBI, Louisiana ranks third in the nation in public corruption cases. It’s maddening to think that, in the midst of all that remains to be done in both the state of Louisiana and in the city of New Orleans, local politicians will abuse their power and ignore their constituent’s needs in favor of fattening their pockets.

With Louisiana, New Orleans in particular, struggling to rebuild itself nearly four years after Hurricane Katrina hit, the local government simply doesn’t have the time or resources to continuously prosecute corrupt public officials. The state’s attorney is doing his job by cracking down on corruption. The politicians need to step up and do their part by putting the needs of the people ahead of their own greed.