Rats have gotten into confiscated drugs at New Orleans’ aging police headquarters, munching the evidence as the building is taken over by mould and cockroaches, the city’s police chief has said.

“The rats eating our marijuana, they’re all high,” Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told New Orleans City Council members.

Ms Kirkpatrick described vermin infestations and decay at the offices that have housed New Orleans police since 1968, saying officers have even found rat droppings on their desks.

The police department did not immediately respond to an emailed request Wednesday for more information on how they discovered marijuana was eaten by rats or whether any cases were impacted.

City officials are taking steps to move the department to a new space. That’s been a priority of the police chief since she took office in October.

The chief said her 910 officers come to work to find air-conditioning and elevators broken.

She told council members the conditions are demoralising to staff and a turnoff to potential recruits coming for interviews.

“The uncleanliness is off the charts,” Ms Kirkpatrick said, adding that it’s no fault of the department’s janitorial staff.

“They deserve an award for trying to clean what is uncleanable.”

The city council is weighing a proposal to spend 7.6 million US dollars (£5.9 million) on a 10-year lease to temporarily relocate the police headquarters to a pair of floors in a high-rise building downtown.