The second class of the Baton Rouge Community Police Ambassadors program has begun training and will be introduced to the Metro Council at its next meeting, says Councilwoman Tara Wicker.
Wicker gave a luncheon speech at the Baton Rouge Press Club this afternoon on the program, which began in 2018 as an effort to support a working relationship between the police department and community.
Wicker, who has long been rumored as a potential mayoral candidate, declined to share details of her political aspirations today, saying it’s a conversation she’ll have over the next couple months privately with her family and that she’ll make a decision by the summer’s qualifying.
The current ambassador’s class comprises 23 people—various community leaders, former police officers and concerned residents—who will undergo eight training sessions before crafting policy recommendations.
Those policy recommendations will be released around the end of 2021, says Wicker, who helped found the program. The first cohort’s report, a compilation of achievements and policy recommendations, was compiled and released at the end of last year.
One of the recommendations that came from the first cohort was for the department to think creatively when it comes to police pay, and to consider what other variables outside of income can affect and improve officers’ quality of life.
An important part of the program, according to Wicker, was for the group to have productive conversations. She says through discussions about problems with the civil service system as well as about the typical trauma police officers experience, the group grew to better understand the importance of a competitive compensation for officers.
“When we started having conversations about police pay and training and retention, there were a lot of people in the room that said, ‘How can we give the police officers a raise when we can’t get the right treatment that we want?’” Wicker says.
This community program and its recommendations are separate from the 55 recommendations for the police department contained in a draft report prepared by the Cincinnati-based consulting firm Management Partners, reported by Daily Report in January. Management Partners was hired by the city-parish in late 2018 to study ways to make local government more efficient.
