In 2015, Serpas was appointed executive director and co-chair for Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration.

As executive director and co-chair, Serpas spearheaded a group of nearly 200 current and former police chiefs, sheriffs, federal and state prosecutors, and attorneys general from all 50 states, to urge changes to laws and practices that more effectively fight crime while reducing unnecessary incarceration.

Serpas began his law enforcement career with the New Orleans Police Department in June 1980 and rose through the ranks to become assistant superintendent and chief of operations in October 1996, serving in that post under then-superintendent Richard Pennington until July 2001.

He served as chief of the Washington State Patrol in the Cabinet of then-Governor Gary Locke from August 2001 until January 2004, and as Chief of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department from January 2004 until returning to the New Orleans Police Department in May 2010.

[citation needed] In June 2015 the New Orleans Police Department reported that during the course of the investigation, PIB learned that a majority of the 840 cases classified as 21 complaints were not related to a call for service regarding criminal activity.