Lafayette Crime

[abbd]

To add to these shortages, I believe I remember (not totally sure about this but I think I remember it correctly) that when dunce first took over, he advocated takin $200,000.00 that was earmarkd to buy more police cars and giving that $200,000.00 to "the arts"(but I think the duncil stopped him from doing this). If I'm incorrect about this PLEASE correct me.

[TBEAR]

i think thats right from what i remember, and sticking their head in the sand aint gonna make the crime go away, just prolong the eventual decrease in quality of life in lafayette.

[laf7744]

Talked to my buddy yesterday, and he told me that they had 8 officers working the entire city Sunday during day shift.

[TBEAR]

that is a disgrace

[zoe10850]

All the more reason for a consolidation of resources.

And as an addendum to your comment TBear, all commissioned officers have power of arrest, that is why they are commissioned. Dispatchers for example are not commissioned and have no legal authority. Jail employees are commissioned and have full arrest powers parishwide.
Also, the 2.5 average includes all personnel, not just those on the road.

Did you know that the Jefferson Parish Sheriff is the 2nd or 3rd largest sheriff's office in the United States ? I believe Cook County Illinois is the only larger office.

[TBEAR]

I did not know that about Jefferson, there should be no crime there huh, but I saw on wwltv website yesterday that Harry Lee wants to hire ex-inmates as jailors due to his jailor shortage.

www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl102306jbguards.6a122dd0.html

Sure Z and what I was meaning is that all employees at the sheriffs office are duly commissioned as their commission cards say, however not all have arrest powers, only the ones that are enforcement certified and whomever is commissioned can be certified after academy training.

the city pd certifiies only the police officers and everyone else, like the dispatchers, are civilians.

Oh and I was looking at the full time 2005 law enforcement fbi ucr statistics and it shows 2.4, not 2.5 like i stated earlier, sworn officers per 1000, not civilians, across the nation, my mistake i must have read wrong. in the south it showed that we had 2.6, and for the cities our size it was broken down to 2.1 per 1000.

www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_71.html

if anyone is interested this is the link to all the crimes across the us reported to the fbi by each agency for 05 in the uniform crime report broken all the way down to each city. At the end of each year nearly every law enforcement agency turns this report into the fbi for statistical data.

www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/

on this page under "crime in the united states" you can pick the past years to compare

www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr.htm#cius

[zoe10850]

There is definetely a lot of crime in Jefferson, but their population is the largest in the state, the sheriff is understaffed by , according to Lee, 150 deputies (and they start at $30 K), and the transient population is estimated at an additional 100,000. The current problem there seems to be a large number of shootings in drug related situations, and Lee is in washington w/ a number of black community leaders to see what can be done (by the blacks) to stem the crime. At least he is trying to address the problems of the community, because he already took out a full page ad in Picayune and stated if the black leaders cannot come up with a solution, he will, and the shootings will stop.

Again, my point was not to quibble with my figures or yours, merely to point out that the leaders in our community are not proactive in the law enforcement environment. If Lafayette is going to continue to grow,we cannot allow crime to get out of hand, starting with our own council members

[TBEAR]

I know Z thats what fears me the most because once it gets really out of hand, thats it, you can never completley get it back to what it was. And its almost there now.

[ronnief]

It is going to get worse, because the police forces are completely demoralized. I blame the administration. I cannot imagine working for a department that comes across as almost "Keystone Cops". Wiretapping your secretary. Jeez !

The Sheriff has been running a deficit for the past couple of years. I suppose he will not run again, and leave a bankrupt department needing a sales tax . Those poor deputies deserve better.

[TBEAR]

Higher Crime rating for Lafayette, THATS GOOD

www.acadiananow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061031/NEWS01/610310304/1002

[laf7744]

Its amazing to see so many leaders in this community come out of the bushes in order to support new taxes. The issue with the possibility of a new courthouse does not sit well with me. Judges, Clerk of Courts, civic leaders all saying that the current courthouse is unsafe and eventually "something bad" will happen.

So many of our elected officials are trying to urge the public to pass this vote, however none fail to stand up to the real issues at hand.

Instead they ignore the fact that many of our local law enforcement agencies are short handed. Regardless if these agencies were consolidated, they would still be short handed. Last reported LPD was approx. 25 officers short, but who is standing up demanding that something be done in order to bring that agency to full staffing. Who in the LCG administration is overseeing the staffing of such agencies like LPD and LFD.

According to the recent crime stats published this week, it seems that Lafayette is unable to control the amount of criminal activity that takes place in the parish.

Instead of tackling the real issues, why dont we just build a new building.

[zoe10850]

What they are not telling us is that our judges and clerk of court want a building just like the federal courthouse; Now how many of us have seen the inside of that building. A courthouse is a public building, ans should be accessable to every citizen. Security is government slang for "let's keep the public out", and that is exactly what the new building will be.

Again, if the old Sears building is good enough for a "city hall" why isn't the K Mart building good enough for a parish government building ? There is no point in knocking down the old federal building to put a courthouse when there is no parking space, and access is a problem.

And finally, a millage proposal is not an inducement to me to fund a courthouse. Only some will pay.

[zoe10850]

And laf7744, I fully agree that crime prevention should be a priority, not a back burner issue. We have passed up Lake Charles, Shreveport, & BR in crime stats, but I do not hear the judges, DA, Sheriff, Chief, or President talking about that.

As for consolidation, I am an advocate because thereis a lot of money to be saved by eliminating duplicate administrative costs. If the funding levels are maintained, we could add 40% to patrol services and similar increase to investigative and juvenile resources. If we consolidated like the city and parish did and eliminated nothing, you are right, things would likely get worse.

[coolboy]

I remember a year or two ago, a guy robbed a convenience store in Lafayette. He was caught a couple of hours later, because he lived right across the street from the store! I thought he was the dumbest criminal in the world. Apparently, I was wrong.

www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=6522070

[LisaS]

My aren't those boys lovely ? They have faces that scream education !

If only they were all that dumb, we could feel safe once again.

And we will pay for an attorney to plea their cases and get the sentence reduced.

[ij]

Not too sure the local government is remotely interested in keeping us safe. Crime is rising and nothing is being done.

[ij]

Is driving drunk a crime? Is murdering citizens while driving drunk a crime? Why do we allow murderers probation? Why aren't murderers punished appropriately? Why don't we recall some of the judges who give very lenient sentences to murderers? Why do we allow ourselves to be victimized over and over by the same elected officials? Is it our fault our theirs?

[MaryAnn]

While I agree that drunk driving is not a good thing, I have trouble placing someone who was drunk and stupid in the same boat as a criminal who intentionally harms people. I know people are killed accidently by drunks. Drunks even kill themselves accidently. I do not think they ever leave their home with the thought of killing anything but their sorrows, or to have a good time.

They should be held accountable for their actions. Instead of jailing someone who is convicted of 2nd or 3rd offense DWI for 10 years, even though there was not even an accident, how about taking away driving privileges on 2nd offense (except for work), have lock devices placed on cars for maybe 5 years, and make them pay a significant portion of wages into a fund dedicated to victems. If they kill someone, let them pay for the rest of their life after a year in jail.

I fail to see the benefit to society in jailing otherwise productive citizens. It does not bring the dead person back, and likely ruins another family (the drinkers). Jail in theory is supposed to be corrective, not just punitive.

[zoe10850]

You know ij, you raise a point regarding our judges. I think those decisions should be shown in paper as to which judge made the decision so that voters can stay on top of these people. At the district judge level, we vote for these guys every 6 years. Some should not be returned to the bench. I am sure there are 2 sides to cases and even circumstances that may warrant release of people that we do not know, but the judge should be accountable just like us.

[ij]

There are a few drunk driver who killed innocent citizens that are soon to be sentenced. We should all be aware of how these people are sentenced. The age old practice of driving drunk needs to be ended. We should take a stand.