A federal judge ended her 12-year oversight of the New Orleans Police Department on Wednesday, clearing the city and Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick to run the city's police force free of court monitoring under a 492-blueprint for reform that officials say has helped transform a department once mired in scandal.

U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan issued her order shortly before 1 p.m. inside a packed auditorium at Loyola Law School, filled mostly with current and former police brass and city officials there to celebrate.

Morgan, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, granted a longstanding request by Mayor LaToya Cantrell, recently joined by a Trump administration Justice Department averse to consent decrees, to terminate the agreement before the department's work on a 2-year "s

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