NEW ORLEANS, LA – A 35-year veteran police officer with the New Orleans Police Department was suspended, with only 15 minutes left on his last shift, for wearing the wrong uniform shirt.



Sergeant Bobby Guidry was moving his personal belongings from his office to his car when he was informed by a supervisor that the older, powder-blue uniform shirt he was wearing was out of regulation.



The department had recently changed from the powder-blue shirts to an unpopular all-black uniform following Hurricane Katrina. Superintendent Warren Riley, who has defended Sergeant Guidry’s suspension, says there are plans to switch back to the powder-blue shirts by the first of the year in order to boost employee morale.



Sergeant Guidry told New Orleans’ Times-Picayune newspaper that he wore the shirt on his last day out of respect to the 18 New Orleans police officers who had been killed in the line of duty during his long career, all of whom wore the same uniform.




“Eighteen people died in the line of duty in that powder-blue shirt while I was with the department,” Guidry said. “I went to each of those funerals. I wore that shirt on a Saturday, on my last day, out of respect for them.

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Because the suspension was active at the end of his shift, he will no longer be eligible to receive his retired police commission and will not be accepted into the agency’s reserve unit as he had intended to do. Police department spokesman Bob Young has said that Guidry’s personnel record will indicate that he retired “under investigation.

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When asked about writing a letter of apology to the chief, Sergeant Guidry responded “What do I apologize for?” Guidry said. “I wore the wrong shirt. . . . I’ll take a letter of reprimand, but a suspension? That’s rough.

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He and his lawyers plan to appeal the suspension.