When dozens of people turned Texas Avenue in downtown Shreveport into a party a few weeks ago — unauthorized and spilling out into the streets — there were no police officers there to quickly get things under control. One city councilman doesn’t think that’s a good enough excuse.
At a meeting of the Shreveport City Council’s Public Safety Committee on Monday, Councilman Gary Brooks questioned Police Chief Wayne Smith about the incident, showing on the screen a photo of dozens of people partying in the middle of Texas Avenue. Brooks raised concerns that the limited and delayed police response was problematic despite the department’s long-standing shortage of officers on the roster. Brooks said while the incident resulted in no injuries or property damage, the situation could have gotten out of control without police.
“The picture speaks volumes,” Brooks told the Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate. “They came. They parked their cars. They turned on their music. They opened their trunks and started drinking, and we didn’t have enough police to do anything about it.”
The Shreveport Police Department has been short on officers for some time, a situation that prompted pay raises and new hiring bonuses earlier this year. While the positions weren’t expected to be filled immediately, Brooks believes it wasn’t enough.
“The officers who answer your calls are not paid enough and we don’t have enough of them,” Brooks told the Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate. “We need to find a way to pay these officers more money.”
Describing the police response to the Texas Avenue party, Smith said his department was aware of it from about the beginning because a nearby business received a call. However, Smith said no officers were available to break up the party.
“I personally called to find out why no one was being sent there and was told, ‘As soon as someone is available, we will send them there. But right now, no one is available,'” Smith said.
Smith said if officers had been available, they would have been dispatched to the illegal party immediately. Smith said officers were eventually dispatched to the scene, though he wasn’t sure how many actually showed up or exactly when.
Smith and Brooks agreed that while two police officers should have been the absolute minimum number that should have been sent to the scene, that number would not have been enough to safely handle the situation.
“Sometimes it’s hard to understand and accept that when someone needs the services of the police, there’s no one there who’s unemployed and ready to be called before I hang up,” Smith said.
Shreveport City Councilman Gary Brooks, left, asks Shreveport Police Chief Wayne Smith questions during a Public Safety Committee meeting Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2024, at Government Plaza in Shreveport, Louisiana.
According to Smith, it is rare, and in recent years perhaps unthinkable, for a shift to end without a police lieutenant offering overtime to officers who are about to finish work.
“The reality is that most of the time calls are on hold and you have to wait for the next available person,” Smith said. “Whether someone answers the call or not, we’re still going to be there with what we have and do the best we can. Unfortunately, this was one of those incidents, but I didn’t have a surplus of people not busy with something I could have sent. I don’t think there’s an officer at SPD who can honestly say, ‘I can’t work overtime because overtime isn’t available.'”
Smith said his department has more than 430 sworn officers, but only a portion of them are assigned to patrol duties. He said there are six patrol shifts citywide each day, with about 30 officers on patrol on each shift — about 180 on any given day.
Brooks asked Smith what the rest of his officers were doing and whether those assigned to other duties could be reassigned to patrol duty. Smith explained that even patrol duty requires more than just the people in the patrol cars.
“There are a whole bunch of other branches to this. It’s not just the ones you see out in the patrol car. There’s more to it than meets the eye,” Smith said.
Smith showed council members a breakdown of how his staff is distributed across the department. He said civilians and retired officers are being hired to fill the gaps, but it’s not enough.
“Very few of them, if any, are staffed at recommended levels because their services are in high demand in our community. Everyone is short-changed. Everyone,” Smith said.
The Shreveport City Council in January approved 3% raises and a signing bonus for police officers and firefighters as part of Mayor Tom Arceneaux’s plan to add more officers to police department rosters. This increased the police department’s overall budget for 2024 by about $3 million.
Shreveport police spokesman Cpl. Chris Bordelon said there are currently 434 sworn officers working for the department. He said about 22 officers have been hired since February, when the raises and incentives went into effect.
Bordelon said new officers graduated from the academy last week and that 17 cadets are currently going through the same process. He said the department is optimistic about adding another 20 cadets to another academy class by the end of the year.
Brooks said Tuesday’s committee meeting did not have the opportunity to cover all of the issues he wanted to address. Although they also discussed issues such as the police station construction plan, Brooks said he plans to call another meeting in a few weeks.
