One of the many casualties of Hurricane Katrina that continues to plague News Orleans residents is safety in the schools. And, as NPR reported this morning, the struggle to secure the schools has led some cops to take on roles that traditionally belonged to guidance counselors. The situation has proven successful—at least according to the adults interviewed for the story. We can imagine that the poor sucker who gets driven home by the former police chief after starting a fight may have a different view of things.

Due to his propensity to break down on TV and rather hysterically relay reports of violence post-Katrina (who could blame the guy, really), Eddie Compass was asked to resign as New Orleans Police Chief. So he took his policing skills to the schools, where he feels much more useful. Compass travels to schools throughout the day, speaking one-on-one with troubled high schoolers and stopping in elementary school classrooms to stress the importance of studying and staying out of trouble. He even makes house calls—much to the horror, I’m sure, of any misbehaving student.

Once Compass took over the monumental task of keeping N.O.’s schools safe, he immediately changed the district’s approach to school safety, which was to stack 20 schools with about 300 guards. Arguing that this plethora of patrollers made schools feel like prisons, Compass cut back on the number of guards and encouraged friendlier, less intrusive relationships between patrollers and students.

Score another point for good cops.

Photo: NPR