The New Orleans Police Department has had to deal with an unusual suspect breaking into its evidence room and eating the marijuana stored inside.

Rats, cockroaches and other vermin have been found inside the evidence room, said the department’s chief, Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, on March 11, according to British news outlet The Guardian.

Describing the rodents, Supt Kirkpatrick said: “They’re all high.”

She had raised the example to the city’s Criminal Justice Committee to point out the department’s deteriorating infrastructure.

According to the website of the New Orleans City Council, the committee coordinates the reform of the criminal justice system, as well as efforts to improve the social, economic and educational contributors of crime. 

“We all know the facilities have been rundown,” said the committee’s chair, Mr Oliver Thomas, adding that in 2023, the police department’s buildings had to be closed due to the heat. 

“Sometimes it’s so cold that our officers and the rank and file at headquarters can’t even occupy the building,” he said.

“The uncleanliness is off the charts,” Supt Kirkpatrick said, adding that the janitors “deserve an award for trying to clean what is uncleanable”.

The issue is not a new one, however. 

A 2017 report from local news outlet WDSU News included photos showing rodents, snakes, possums and mould in the evidence room.

These conditions, as well as missing evidence and rusty guns, were detailed in an earlier WDSU report from 2008.

A proposal put forward – on a 10-year lease costing some US$7.6 million (S$10.16 million) – to temporarily relocate the police headquarters to another building has been approved by the committee, pending a vote by the city council.