The Metropolitan Police District was created in 1868 by Act 74 of the Louisiana Legislature, as part of the Republican reconstruction following the Civil War. Section 1 of the act reads: ”Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Louisiana in General Assembly convened, that the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard are hereby constituted and territorially united for the purposes of police government and police discipline therein, in one district, which shall be known and called, 'the Metropolitan Police District of New Orleans, State of Louisiana'.” Governance and discipline of the district was to be exercised by a 5-member board, appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Lieutenant Governor served as an ex officio member of the Board and presided at meetings.

The force was to consist of not more than one superintendent or less than two police surgeons, six captains, twenty-four sergeants, an unspecified number of corporals, twenty-four clerks, five hundred and seventy-five patrolmen and forty-four doormen, as well as a superintendent and assistant superintendent of police telegraph. The Board of Commissioners appointed the members of the force and promulgated all rules, regulations and orders to the force through the Superintendent of Police, who was to be the executive head of the whole force of the District. The authority of the police was not limited to the three parishes mentioned above; their authority extended to the entire state, so long as they possessed a warrant issued by any magistrate. The 1868 Act further required that the Board conduct an annual estimation of the expenses of operating the force in each city or parish within the Metropolitan District. Each of the cities and parishes were then required to levy taxes on real and personal estates in order to raise the amount of money apportioned by the Board to each locale.

The Metropolitan Police is perhaps remembered most for its participation in the "Battle of Liberty Place." On September 14, 1874, members of the conservative Democratic White League attacked the Metropolitan Police in a dispute arising from the disputed gubernatorial election of 1872 -- more generally, in an attempt to end Reconstruction rule in Louisiana. In the brief but bloody battle at the foot of Canal Street, the Metropolitans were routed and the White League seized the city. Federal control was reestablished within days, but the battle marked the beginning of a shift in power and of the end of the Metropolian Police. The force was dismantled by Act 35 of 1877, which repealed all previous Metropolitan Police legislation and authorized the City of New Orleans, through the Mayor and Board of Administrators, to "establish, organize and maintain a police force which would be entirely under city control." City ordinance 3889 A.S. (April 26, 1877) reconstituted the Department of Police under the control of the Mayor and an Administrator of Police.