Shreveport Police Chief Continues to Make Changes to Fight Crime

Shreveport substitute Police Chief Wayne Smith is continuing to put changes in place to address crime problems in the community. Smith tells KEEL News he has already asked all officers to work between 4 and 8 hours a week on patrol. He urges each officer to make this work within their existing hours.

He says many officers have done so already and he himself worked a shift on the streets on Saturday night. During our interview he explains how he hopes the officers will adjust their schedule to put in these patrol hours during night time hours when most of the violent crime happens.

Chief Smith is also putting a take-home-car policy in place. He says all officers who live in the city limits of Shreveport will be able to take their patrol cars home. He also says they will no longer have to report to an in-person roll call before hitting the streets. He says with technology today, this can be done remotely and will keep the officers on the streets for at least one hour more each day.

Chief Smith also encourages to continue to work to boost the pay for officers. He says this is a key to recruiting more officers to work within the department. But he also says he is streamlining the recruiting process and rather than require recruits to come in to the office several times, recruiters will go out to them. He says this will keep those recruits from having to take time off from their jobs to go through this process.