Shortage of officers: Be careful headed to downtown BR for July 4th

The Baton Rouge Police Dept. is having a tough time finding enough officers to work downtown on July 4th.

It’s been a July 4th tradition forever to go to downtown Baton Rouge at the levee for the fireworks. This year however, it appears the Baton Rouge Police Department cannot find enough officers to volunteer to work downtown on Independence Day.

Downtown Baton Rouge falls within the city limits, which is why BRPD is responsible for providing security.

In an internal BRPD email leaked to Unfiltered with Kiran, the deputy chief over uniform patrol said, “Due to the timing and extremely low interest by our officers, our event organizers are in need of more manpower.”

Whenever officers volunteer to work July 4th or any other BRPD event that falls outside of their normal schedule, it counts as overtime pay, which can be up to two and half times the officer’s hourly rate.

This July 4th however, despite that two and half times pay, the department cannot find enough officers to work.

Instead, officers who normally work on Sunday evenings and overnight will now have to be assigned to head downtown on July 4th. Their supervisors will have to assign an officer from each district on both the evening and overnight shifts to work downtown.

In years past, it’s been the opposite problem where officers await the emails to sign up to work events for overtime because they used to book up very quickly.

If there is a need, BRPD can reach out to the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office requesting their deputies to assist with the event. 

Recent Posts

Police investigating shooting at apartment complex

March 31, 2023 0

BATON ROUGE, La. — Baton Rouge Police officers are investigating a possible domestic shooting. It happened Friday, March 31 around 1:20pm at the Acadian Place Apartments on S. Flannery Rd. Unfiltered with Kiran is told […]

BRPD investigating I-12 accident that killed pedestrian

March 31, 2023 2

Baton Rouge detectives are investigating a fatal crash that occurred on I-12 East between Sherwood Forest and Millerville at around 10:40 p.m. Thursday night between a pickup truck and a pedestrian. Detectives believe the pedestrian […]

About Kiran Chawla 1205 Articles
I'm an Emmy & Murrow Award winning investigative reporter who simply loves my job!

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: