New Orleans’ public recreation department failed to run background checks on many of the people involved in its youth sports programs last year, and two of its volunteer coaches had criminal histories, the New Orleans Inspector General found. The OIG found that only about half of a random sample of 2025 coaches had background checks on file. And two volunteers should have been disqualified based on the criminal histories that the OIG uncovered. Most of the roughly 5,000 children who participated in NORD athletics programs last year were coached by volunteers who are required by policy to undergo annual background checks.
