A senior New Orleans police officer is facing 350 criminal charges arising from an alleged new Orleans police overtime fraud scheme that investigators say ran for a full year, costing the city a sum that prosecutors put higher than initial reports suggested.
Brandon Coleman, 39, a Senior Police Officer with the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), was arrested on 7 August 2026 by detectives from the Louisiana State Police Criminal Investigations Division and booked into the Orleans Justice Center on 325 counts of Filing False Public Records, 23 counts of Public Payroll Fraud, one count of Malfeasance in Office, and one count of Theft.
The Louisiana State Police Criminal Investigations Division’s New Orleans Field Office conducted the inquiry jointly with the New Orleans Office of Inspector General (NO OIG), which had opened the initial inquiry following concerns about payroll fraud. The investigation covered alleged conduct between December 2024 and December 2025.
Conflicting Figures Over New Orleans Police Overtime Fraud Losses
The sum allegedly taken is in dispute. The original investigation referenced a figure exceeding $111,000 in overtime Coleman did not earn. At a first appearance hearing before Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Juana Lombard, however, the Louisiana Attorney General’s office argued that Coleman had collected more than $172,000 he should not have received. Judge Lombard found probable cause on all charges, according to Fox 8’s first appearance report.
Coleman posted a $17,000 bond and was released. He is due back in court on 9 September.
Coleman was placed on emergency unpaid suspension on 6 August 2026, the day before his arrest. He has denied the allegations and, according to WDSU, plans to plead not guilty.
Defence Points to Remote Working and Digital Records
Coleman’s attorney, Bobby Hjortsberg, argued that Coleman coordinated Mardi Gras police escorts throughout the year and routinely worked remotely by telephone and email. Hjortsberg said internal emails and other digital records would support that account.
Prosecutors and investigators take a different view. Fox 8’s months-long investigation first brought Coleman to public attention when undercover cameras captured him at home on multiple occasions while he was clocked in and drawing pay. That reporting preceded the formal joint-agency inquiry, which began in April 2026.
NOLA.com reported that NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the department was fully cooperating with investigators.
Systemic Reform: $8.3 Million Saved in Six Months
The Coleman case emerged from a broader review of overtime payments across the NOPD, and that review has since produced measurable change. The department introduced stricter controls requiring officers to clock in at their actual duty locations and strengthening supervisory oversight.
The New Orleans Office of Inspector General attributed $8.3 million in overtime savings to those safeguards in the first six months of 2026 alone, according to its own published figures. Inspector General Ed Michel linked the savings directly to a 45 per cent drop in overtime spending, with the New Orleans OIG crediting the new controls for the reduction.
To put that in context: NOPD overtime spending ran to nearly $18 million in the first half of the prior year. The equivalent period in 2026 cost the city substantially less, according to Officer.com, with the savings representing a structural shift rather than a one-off reduction.
Subject to any developments at his 9 September hearing, Coleman faces the prospect of trial on all 350 counts. The divergence between the $111,000 figure cited by investigators and the $172,000 pressed by the Attorney General’s office is likely to become a central factual dispute when the case reaches the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.
