Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s administration hopes to give Baton Rouge police officers a pay raise later this year with savings that are anticipated to come from a series of reforms to the department’s structure and operations.
The potential savings are identified in a new consultants’ report, still in draft form, that recommends more than 50 ways to make the department more efficient, effective and in line with 21st century policing.
The report, by Cincinnati-based Management Partners Inc., suggests the BRPD could save nearly $10 million a year if all the recommended reforms are implemented.
BRPD Chief Murphy Paul says it will take years to implement all the changes and that a more realistic figure for the immediate future is $5 million-$6 million a year.
Chief Administrative Officer Darryl Gissel says he’s working with the parish finance department to determine how much of that money could be realistically allocated later this year to officer pay raises.
“We’re trying to figure out what can we gain really quick to see what can we pay,” Gissel says. “We want to do it before the end of the year as a budget adjustment.”
Before that occurs, however, the consultants have to issue a final version of the report—which will take into account feedback Paul has received on the draft from within the BRPD—as well as an implementation action plan.
“The implementation plan is key to all this,” says Management Partners’ principal Jerry Newfarmer. “It is conservative to estimate this can all be done in two or three years. It will take time. I don’t think this department has ever been looked at like this.”
Paul acknowledges some of the changes proposed in the report have been “shocking” to those in the department. The report calls for “rightsizing” the 698-member department and reallocating officers from special operations units to the districts, which would effectively put more officers on the streets.
It also calls for using less costly civilians than armed officers to perform tasks in fleet management and telephone operations, changing certain overtime policies and doing away with certain specialized units.
“Change is hard,” Paul says. “I am very aware of that and I don’t want to negatively impact morale any more than it is now. It is important for me to get the buy in.”
Being able to deliver on a long-promised pay raise to officers would help boost morale, he believes. Implementing the changes would also help to reduce crime in Baton Rouge.
“Of all the recommendations they are making there is no one-size-fits-all to stop crime,” he says. “Crime is bigger than law enforcement. But the study says, chief, if you do these 50 things you can be better at your jobs and it puts more boots on the ground and boots on the ground does have an impact on crime.”
Newfarmer hopes to deliver the final report and implementation action plan to the BRPD by the end of March.
[polldaddy poll=10497065]
