B.R. ordinance essentially has companies pay twice for one service

By state law, the Louisiana State Police are required to provide an escort for every oversized vehicle or load that’s permitted to travel through the state by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. The company moving the materials through the state is required to pay the off-duty officers $40 an hour for their time and another per-mile fee to LSP for its equipment and vehicles, says LSP spokesman Lt. Doug Cain. But when a state police-escorted vehicle or load reaches the city limits of Baton Rouge, a local ordinance requires the convoy to pull over and wait for Baton Rouge Police officers to arrive on scene so they can assist the escort through the city. “That happens in a handful of municipalities in the state,” Cain says. “I don’t know how many exactly, but I know for certain it happens in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.” The Baton Rouge officers are also paid by the transporting company, which is in effect being charged twice for the same service due to the local ordinance. Mayor Kip Holden last week vetoed a pair of ordinances—for the first time since taking office in 2005—one of which was authored by Councilman Ulysses “Bones” Addison and would have stripped the BRPD of what Addison calls a “quasi-monopoly” on the oversized-load escort business and opened it up to all “bona fide law enforcement agencies.” Addison says he’ll bring the ordinance back before the Metro Council on Wed., Dec. 14, in an attempt to secure the two-thirds vote required to override the mayor’s veto. Addison says BRPD officers are being paid in cash for the off-duty escort work but that the department is not being reimbursed for its equipment and vehicles. Read a recent Daily Report story on how much the escort work is worth to off-duty officers here.
—Steve Sanoski