BATON ROUGE — Baton Rouge Police officers are set to receive historic pay raises following Wednesday’s Metro Council meeting. Those raises could start rolling out as soon as mid-May 2026.
The vote came down to 9 in favor, with one abstaining and two who did not vote.
BRPD Chief T.J. Morse kicked off the public comment portion of the meeting: “Your Baton Rouge Police Department desperately needs these raises so that we can attract, recruit and hire more top tier talent to fill our ranks.”
BRPD’s Union President Brandon O’Neal spoke in favor of the proposal, saying the raise is badly needed to support the men and women of the department.
BRPD’s Deputy Chief Sharon Douglas posed the question: what was the going rate for a hero. She said the profession is a calling, not a job people do for money. She detailed that nine officers had died in the line of duty since 2016 at BRPD. One of them died making $39,000, Douglas said.
“If you’re in the City of Baton Rouge and you call 911, there are only three agencies that will be responding to your call for help. Three: Baton Rouge Fire Department, East Baton Rouge EMS and the Baton Rouge Police Department. That is it. We answer these calls on nights, weekends and holidays, equipped to handle any crisis our community faces, but our department is doing all of this at critical staffing shortage. Based on population size and calls for service, our department is allotted for 696 officers. As I stand here today, we are right about 525 officers,” Chief Morse said.
Meanwhile, the East Baton Rouge Constable Terrica Williams spoke saying she was not against the raises for the police officers, but that constable deputies also need a raise. It’s an item that’s slated to be discussed at the May 13th council meeting. She said they too are considered law enforcement. Multiple people spoke, echoing Williams’ take that the deputies too need a raise so why wait two more weeks for that conversation.
“This ordinance concerns me because it appears to be divided along racial and party lines. When we call for our police department. We don’t care what party they’re with or what race they are. I’m asking to yes, take care of our police officers but I’m also asking you to take care of the constable’s office and all law enforcement in East Baton Rouge Parish,” said one person who spoke at the meeting.
Councilman Darryl Hurst asked his fellow members who would be willing at this point to approve a raise for the constable deputies. With four hands raised, Hurst made a motion to defer the vote for BRPD another two weeks, to occur at the same time as the vote for a pay increase for other city-parish employees.
Councilman Cleve Dunn Jr. also said he would not be supporting the vote to give BRPD officers a raise at tonight’s meeting. The motion to defer the vote was voted down.
Magnolia State Peace Officers Association said their organization is made up largely of BRPD officers and said they have seen a steady decline of officers but an increase in demands for the job. The organization’s leader said, “This is not an issue about money but about public safety for Baton Rouge.”
Local judges and a pastor spoke in favor of the raise.
Former BRPD Chief Jeff LeDuff, who now serves as the assistant chief administrative officer, said, “We choose to do this. It’s a dangerous job. It’s a thankless job but we love what we do. I’m asking you today to pay them what they’re worth.”
Mayor-President Sid Edwards proposed the plan last month. His plan uses the money saved by switching retired city-parish workers to a different benefit plan, around $15 million, to cover the costs of the raises. It proposes that every sworn officer will receive at least a 15% pay increase, with many receiving more. Non-sworn personnel could see at least a 3.5% increase, and the police chief would receive a 5.9% increase.
“This is a vote for the citizens of Baton Rouge because that’s important and our city needs this protection,” the mayor stated at the council meeting.
According to a statement by Edwards after the vote, starting officers will move from $40,000 to $58,000 per year with opportunities to make $65,000 after their first year of service.
Over 800 people emailed saying they were in support of the raises while two people opposed it.
MORE Baton Rouge police warn of service cuts amid officer shortage, pay debate
BRPD is currently down nearly 170 officers, and in some cases, shifts that once had more than a dozen officers are now operating with about half that.
“We’re really going to have to talk about what services we’re going to cut and what we can no longer provide,” BRPD Police Chief TJ Morse said on UWK’s podcast Louisiana Unfiltered.
Police raise faces opposition
Earlier this month, some council members asked Edwards to pull his police pay raise plan from council consideration and spread smaller raises across all departments in city-parish government. At the time, Edwards said he was unlikely to reconsider.
City Constable Terrica Williams, who has complained about her officers being excluded from the mayor’s plan, said she hopes Edwards will take another look at the plan and reconsider. She threatened legal action if the plan is approved without raises for her staff. Mayor-President Edwards responded to that on UWK‘s podcast.
District Attorney Hillar Moore has said he expects to sue city-parish “very soon” to force additional funding for his office. He argues that state law requires the parish government to fund the district attorney’s office.
City-parish has been plagued by financial concerns since the formation of the City of St. George led to a significant reduction in tax money available for city-parish government.
The city-parish faces two potential lawsuits over its budgeting.
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