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.
The additional officers for the downtown precinct will come from two new classes of police recruits, one of which graduates in April; the other, in late summer. Officers assigned to downtown will be reallocated from other precincts, Dabadie said.
“We’re kind of moving some manpower around as more business come up downtown and more people attend things downtown,” he said. “I can’t say I’m taking it from one particular area. We’re just moving things around.”
The new downtown precinct will be located in the basement of the City Hall at 222 St. Louis St. in space that has been occupied by the Clerk of Court. Renovations to the space are expected to get under way soon, though Dabadie could not say exactly when. Even once the renovation is completed, the police department’s existing substation on Third Street in the ground floor of the downtown parking garage will remain staffed and operational.
“We’re going to keep both for at least the next two years, because I believe that is the terms of the contract we signed with the parking garage and our goal is to keep that,” Dabadie said. “We don’t want to get rid of that office … it’s easy access for them in and out throughout the day.” —Stephanie Riegel
