Downtown will get a new police precinct, Mayor Kip Holden announced today in his annual State of the City address to the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge.
Though the Baton Rouge Police Department currently has a substation on Third Street in the heart of downtown, it is only staffed with two officers and has limited hours. The new precinct, by contrast, will be staffed by several officers and will be open 24 hours a day.
“We thought there needed to be more police presence downtown,” says Chief Administrative Officer William Daniel. “The mayor has wanted to do this for some time.”
The new precinct will be in the basement of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St., in what is now a vacant space near the Clerk of Court’s office. Daniel said he doesn’t know yet how many officers will be assigned to the new precinct, but noted that it won’t cost any additional money, as the officers will be reallocated from within the department.
“We have two police academies this year,” he says. “One just graduated and another will graduate in a few months so we have enough officers to allocate some to this department.”
Downtown Development District Executive Director Davis Rhorer says the announcement is welcome news.
“It is awesome,” he says. “Downtown has 140,000 people that come in and out on a daily basis. It is very diverse and there’s a lot that goes on down here so we need the added police presence.”
The new precinct should be operational by the end of the first quarter. —Stephanie Riegel
