* Justice Department finds cases of excessive force
* It cites discrimination on basis of race, gender (Updates throughout with comments from news conference, more details from report)
By Kathy Finn
NEW ORLEANS, March 17 (Reuters) - The New Orleans Police Department too often uses excessive force, conducts illegal stops and arrests, and has a pattern of discriminating on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation, the U.S. Justice Department said in a report on Thursday.
"For too long, the Department has been largely indifferent to widespread violations of law and policy by its officers," according to the report by the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.
The report -- which stemmed from a request for an investigation by Mayor Mitch Landrieu -- outlined problems with training, recruiting, supervision and interrogation practices.
"The leadership in this city went to sleep," Landrieu said after a news conference in which Justice Department and city officials announced the findings.
The report said the police department encourages under-investigating violence against women, and found a systemic police failure to respond quickly to calls from people who do not speak English fluently.
It identified "a troubling racial disparity" in use of force, finding that in all 27 instances between January 2009 and May 2010 in which police intentionally fired guns at people, the subjects were African American.
"The African American community for a long time has spoken about mistreatment from the Orleans Police Department," Landrieu said. "Well, they were right."
Despite the wide-ranging problems that are "deeply rooted in the culture of the department," the police department did not find a single policy violation by an officer in the past four years, said Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez.
Federal officials called for reforms to improve training, foster better community collaboration and eliminate bias.
New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Ronal Serpas, who was hired by Landrieu, said he wants City Council permission to reorganize the department, including picking new senior leaders.
In December 2010, a federal jury convicted three current and one former New Orleans police officers in the shooting death and burning of a man in the chaotic days following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
In March, 2010, a former New Orleans police detective pleaded guilty to helping cover up two shooting deaths by police days after Katrina struck. (Writing by Corrie MacLaggan; editing by Peter Bohan, Jerry Norton and Mohammad Zargham)
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