If the Baton Rouge police chief were ever to become an elected position—as some are calling for in the wake of the recent firing of former Chief Dewayne White by Mayor Kip Holden—only voters living within city limits would be allowed to cast a vote for their choice at the polls.
Furthermore, state law requires city-position candidates to have lived within city limits for at least a year prior to an election, says Parish Attorney Mary Roper. It gets trickier: Most police chiefs historically have come up through the ranks of BRPD, but under state law, existing officers on the force who wish to campaign for police chief have to resign in order to do so.
“It’s a prohibitive practice to be employed in the classified service and be a candidate for a public office,” Roper explains.
And then there’s the potential confusion created by the bizarre boundaries of the Baton Rouge city limits—which exclude a large portion of southeast Baton Rouge between interstates 10 and 12. (Find a Business Report story from October about that issue here.)
Making the police chief an elected position would require a change in the plan of city-parish government, which would be up for a parishwide vote. The Metro Council would have to approve sending such a ballot measure to voters.
On Wednesday, the council deferred a public hearing on the matter until March 13. Councilman Scott Wilson says such a change in the plan of government would only complicate matters further between mayor and police chief.
“I think you’re going to get more politics into it,” Wilson says.
