Superintendent Michael Harrison will be honored as a New Orleans Family Justice Center (NOFJC) Champion at the group’s fourth annual Unmasking Domestic Violence Soiree tonight (Oct. 21).

The victim advocacy group, which is dedicated to ending family violence, child abuse, sexual assault, and stalking in the New Orleans area, is honoring Harrison for his leadership in reforming the way the department responds to domestic violence and sexual assaults.

“He is winning this award for his leadership and for providing strong leadership in the NOPD Special Victims Unit who have developed and implemented the reforms of the consent decree and that represent best and promising practices in the field,” said NOFJC Executive Director Mary Claire Landry.

She added, “He is committed to excellence from himself and his commanders. He engages the community as a partner and welcomes feedback to improve the force. We love that he supports the Special Victims Section being at the NOFJC and embraces us as a full collaborative partner.”

Last year, Chief Harrison relocated the Sex Crimes Unit to the NOFJC to provide a warmer environment for survivors as they are interviewed and move through the difficult process of coming to grips with sexual assault. NOFJC also worked in collaboration with the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Sexual Violence to help the department transform the Special Victims Section. In an audit released earlier this year, New Orleans Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux reported that the NOPD has made a ‘remarkable turnaround’ in how the department documents and reports sex crimes when compared to a previous audit in 2014.

NOFJC also worked with NOPD on the Blueprint for Safety, a unified approach for how the city responds to domestic violence incidents.