Well, it was the week that was for Shreveport law enforcement.
On Monday, Aug. 23, Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins conducted a press conference to tout the establishment of a real time crime center for Shreveport. Among those in attendance was Shreveport Police Department Chief Ben Raymond. It was, on the surface, a happy day.
On Thursday, Aug. 27, Perkins held another press conference. This one was to announce the resignation of Raymond and the appointment of Wayne Smith as the interim SPD chief. Raymond and Smith were in attendance. It was a bittersweet day at best.
The real time crime center had been promised by Perkins after he and city officials, including council member Tabatha Taylor, visited the New Orleans and Baton Rouge real time crime centers. Working his usual magic, IT Director Keith Hanson had assembled the needed equipment and hired personnel to run the center with an effective date by the end of September.
Unfortunately, the announcement of the center caught several council members off guard in the sense that they lacked knowledge that it was actually being installed, that staff had been hired and that it was located within a stone’s throw of the mayor’s office on the second floor of Government Plaza.
At the Shreveport council meeting the next day (Tuesday), there was a healthy and somewhat protracted exchange between council members and the mayor about the crime center. A particular point of contention was the location in city hall versus the police department like in NOLA and Baton Rouge. Of course, by then the cow was out of the barn, and disgruntled council members assuaged their concerns with the balm of a much-needed law enforcement tool that would soon be operational.
And if observers thought the crime center was somewhat of a bombshell, they had to hang onto their hardhats when the next press conference was scheduled at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday -- the day before a special council meeting had been called for a vote of no confidence in Raymond. Word seeped out that Raymond would be axed at the press conference.
Unlike Monday, the mood in the mayor’s conference room was quite sober. Perkins, Raymond and Smith were in attendance. The mayor announced he had asked for Raymond’s resignation on June 2 and that Raymond had stayed in his position to complete training and to work on a transition. Perkins said Smith was at the time the interim police chief and that Raymond would be on leave through October to return to duty at his former rank of sergeant.
Councilman John Nichelson read a statement praising the service of Raymond while acknowledging the citizen concerns over the wave of violent crime that the city had experienced the past weekend. In telling comments, Nickelson said, “He (Raymond) does not pull the triggers of the guns that kill our people, criminals do. Nor is he responsible for the city’s chronic underfunding of its police department; the city’s elected leadership is. And he likewise has no power over a local criminal justice system that often fails to appropriately punish armed felons and other violent criminals; the bench and bar bear that responsibility.”
Raymond’s comments were also quite telling. He noted that firemen do not get fired because of fires and that doctors do not get fired when patients die. He also emphasized that the police department had been chronically understaffed with currently over 100 positions. Raymond’s courage to attend the press event was indeed admirable and certainly a sobering event.
Smith also read a statement emphasizing his 40 years’ experience on the force. Basically, he promised to do everything Raymond had done, but better. Ignoring the reality that many police officers had been forced to work double shifts in recent months, he said SPD would work harder. Smith also said he had new ideas for recruitment of officers, but he did not address the real issue of low pay.
After the event, Raymond and Smith walked out of city hall together. That is the last time Raymond has been seen in public, and he no longer has a city phone. If he does not come back to the force in November, it will be a sad and ignominious exit for a dedicated public servant who deserved a better fate.
The reality that Raymond had been a dead man walking for almost three months certainly quieted many of his critics as they reflected on the grief he had taken at council meetings, the bond listening tour and by private citizens and in social media in the 80-plus days since he was asked for his resignation and his final day as chief. During that interval, Raymond had maintained a stiff upper lip and played the good soldier game while all along he must have been dying inside, and he is to be commended for that.
And so a messy four days at Government Plaza for the Shreveport Police Department ended after 5 p.m. on that Thursday. And it was not a happy ending.
Luckily for new interim Chief Smith, violent crime did take a dip the first weekend of his tenure as chief. And he did get to make a positive appearance as the new chief at the announcement of the National Night Out.
His next big appearance will be at the Shreveport City Council meeting, where he will most likely enjoy a brief honeymoon from council members and the general public. He’d better enjoy it while it lasts, especially if the uptick in crime continues.