It was a two hour meeting full of news on Shreveport crime, both bad and good.
Here are the highlights of SPD Chief Wayne Smith's remarks:
1. Good news: Part 1 crime--homicide, rape, robbery, burglary, theft, assault and batter--is down. The first quarter number of 1,851 is below the four year average for 2019-2022.
2. Bad news: There were 23 homicides in the first quarter of this year compared to 16 last year.
3. Bad news: First quarter car thefts are up--211 this year versus 169 last year and 204 in 2021.
4. Bad news: Car thieves are much younger with ages ranging from 13 into early 20s as opposed to previous year.
5. Good news: Over 700 cameras are now feeding into the city's Real Time Crime Center. Work is in progress to add more cameras to city owned buildings and downtown buildings.
6. Good news: SPD may add mobile license plate readers like Bossier City and Bossier Parish. Information from these readers will be fed into the Real Time Crime Center.
7. Good news: SPD will soon roll out a first-of-its-kind texting program that will allow people to text information about a crime to a specific number that is fed into a computer which deletes the number automatically.
8. Good news: SPD was one of a few police departments awarded a $800 thousand federal grant that includes zoom meeting with law enforcement experts to discuss crime trends and best practices.
The grant also funds sending SPD officers to other departments across the nation to learn new practices. Smith will be going to Harvard University this month for a conference with a select few police chiefs.
9. Good news: In May SPD will host a conference of law enforcement agencies. Originally planned as a tw0-day event, it has now been expanded to three days.
Smith also advised many programs were in operation and also being planned that could not be publicly discussed.
