As many as 22 full-time police officers could be assigned to the new downtown police precinct as soon as late summer, according to Police Chief Carl Dabadie, who detailed plans for the precinct at this morning’s monthly meeting of the Downtown Development District.
“We saw a need for a full-time, 24-hour, seven-day police presence with all the new businesses that are downtown,” Dabadie said. “We have 10 officers now. We will double that and hope to have between 20 and 22 officers assigned 100% of the time to downtown.”
Because the BRPD is allocating additional officers downtown, it will expand the boundaries of the area those officers patrol. Officers in the downtown precinct will cover an area roughly bounded by the river to the west, just beyond LSU to the south, 19th Street to the east and Choctaw Street to the north. Those boundaries are not yet carved in stone, as the department is still trying to finalize them, Dabadie said.
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