Police officer on body cam smoking meth: ‘Losing everything was worth being clean’

By Aubry Killion

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    NEW ORLEANS (WDSU) — A New Orleans police officer was on duty smoking crystal meth, with his body camera rolling.

After requesting the body camera video for nearly a year, WDSU Investigates uncovered the video and spoke exclusively with the now-former officer.

Maurice Bailey said when you do meth, you sell your soul.

He spoke with WDSU Investigates to tell his story in his own words and to push others to get help.

“Losing everything was worth being clean,” Bailey said. “If I can speak and help someone else, that is the most important thing.”

The video was recorded in December 2023, just before 5 a.m.

Bailey goes into a store, buys a lighter and gets back in his unit.

While driving, he’s seen preparing his pipe and smokes it.

“Doing crystal meth on the job, body camera on,” Bailey said. “Mental health and law enforcement, what I thought could fix it, broke it.”

The video has haunted Bailey for the past year.

“I have to be held accountable,” Bailey said. “I was a police officer. I took an oath. I was supposed to be out there doing the right thing. I was supposed to be setting an example.”

Bailey said he’s always lived a fast-paced life before this happened. He said he wasn’t taking life seriously.

WDSU Investigates asked Bailey if he wasn’t caught, would he still be using meth.

“Probably would have hurt somebody or hurt myself because I wasn’t going to stop,” Bailey said.

Bailey said the first time he tried methamphetamine was the summer of 2023, off the clock, but he said this wasn’t the first time he was high on meth while on the job.

“I had only done it once or twice on the job,” Bailey said.

WDSU asked Bailey how many times he was doing crystal meth before his shift.

“Five or six times,” Bailey said.

After getting caught, he was put on desk duty.

Bailey was stripped of his badge and gun, but he says that didn’t stop his addiction; he said he continued to use.

“I didn’t stop until I resigned,” Bailey said.

Bailey said he got caught in December 2023 and resigned in April 2024.

WDSU asked Bailey what he would tell the people he was protecting and serving about his actions while under the influence of meth.

“I’m sorry,” Bailey said. “I failed, and I should have done better. I apologize and there isn’t an excuse.”

WDSU spoke with NOPD Deputy Superintendent Nicholas Gernon and asked why Bailey was not terminated immediately.

“So that’s a good question,” Gernon said. “Everybody has a due process here. We have civil service protections for employees. Had we terminated him without the due process of an investigation, he would have likely had the ability to get his job back. He would have likely been able to appeal his termination.”

Gernon said after this video was discovered, an investigation was immediately launched. Bailey was stripped of police powers.

WDSU asked why Bailey was not arrested.

“We didn’t actually have the narcotics to prove he was in possession at that time in our jurisdiction,” Gernon said. “It is not unusual for us not to arrest anybody if we don’t actually have the narcotics.”

Gernon noted Bailey was caught after a supervisor reviewed the video. Gernon said an extensive review of other calls Bailey responded to was done, and NOPD did not find anything concerning.

Gernon said the department reviews officer’s body camera videos weekly.

“This was bad, and it’s horrible that it got to this,” Gernon said. “It is shocking to see that video, but the systems that we set up caught it and self-correct it before somebody was hurt. He could have killed somebody, he could have killed himself, but it also demonstrates the system of accountability we have set up over the last decade.”

Gernon did provide WDSU Investigates emails that went out to staff when this video was recorded.

The emails show the department offering resources for mental health and addiction.

Gernon stressed that the department has extensive resources and programs for officers experiencing addiction and that anyone should speak up.

“I know it’s embarrassing,” Gernon said. “I know it’s shameful. I also know from personal experience, from people that have been close to me, that the alternative to reaching out for help very likely ends in premature death.”

While Bailey admits what he did was wrong, he is telling his story to let anyone struggling to know that there is hope.

Bailey said addiction is a disease and urges anyone fighting to get help.

“Broken, recovering, grateful blessed to be broken, but I am recovering,” Bailey said. “It is OK to hurt, it is OK to cry — you don’t have to keep it in.”

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