NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A steady stream of reinforcements for police poured down interstate highways toward New Orleans on Monday -- long convoys of police cars, blue lights flashing, emblazoned with emblems from scattered police, sheriff, and other jurisdictions, in and out of state.
Mayor Ray Nagin, in a telephone interview on WWL radio, the city's linked emergency broadcast center, said he was arranging to rotate out the city officers who have been working virtually around the clock since before the storm hit.
He said they and their families would get five or more days in cities with large numbers of hotel rooms -- Atlanta and Las Vegas in particular.
In addition to the police, firefighters and dispatchers will be included.
In addition to rest and relaxation, they will have time to assess their personal situation since many lost homes and relatives. Counselors will be there, too, he said, to help determine whether they will be available to come back.
Among the first to get a break, Nagin said, was police Chief Eddie Compass, whose wife is expecting a baby. His bad knee gave out on him late last week and he had to resort to a wheelchair.
Nagin noted that the officers had been under incredible pressure -- long hours, impossible communications, little food, some shot at and finding bodies they had no means to recover.
Nagin said the new officers will join National Guardsmen and other officers who are working through the city, block by block.
A convoy of dozens of National Guard Humvees rolled into New Orleans late Sunday and heavily armed guardsmen fanned out through the city, which has been plagued by sporadic gunfire since shortly after the hurricane. Some law enforcement officers have said snipers targeted them from the darkness.
Nagin has said he thinks some of the lawlessness comes from crazed drug addicts who cannot find a fix.
