Metro Councilwoman Chauna Banks sent an email to media outlets and city-parish officials today, defending her choice to ask for changes in the residency requirements for Baton Rouge police officers so soon after the death of two officers and a sheriff’s deputy in an ambush attack on Airline Highway on July 17.
Under the change proposed by the District 2 councilwoman, any officers hired after Jan. 1, 2017, would be required to live inside the city limits of Baton Rouge. She says the change is one important step if city leaders are serious about further implementing community policing.
“Residency requirements for police officers have long been tied to better relations between cops and the communities they’re meant to protect,” Banks writes. “They continue to be seen by activists and politicians as a social good, part of the struggle to improve police force diversity.
Some of Banks’ colleagues on the council say the timing of the item—less than one week after three officers were buried—bothers them the most.
“If you want to have a discussion about residency requirements, that’s fine,” Metro Councilman and mayoral candidate John Delgado told Daily Report. “But it is without class to do so the week that we bury these men.”
Councilwoman Donna Collins-Lewis, who previously studied and supports residency requirements, told Daily Report she thinks the council should defer the item for 60-90 days.
Banks, in her email, says forcing new hires to stay in Baton Rouge, as opposed to letting them move to Livingston and Ascension parishes, will increase the city’s tax base and foster better relationships with the community.
“With some form of residential requirements and practices of integrity in place with the Baton Rouge Police Department, law enforcement will be able to maintain its place as a most honorable profession,” she writes.
