April 16, 2026
The Honorable Greg Young,
President, Caddo Parish Commission
We have submitted a request to Commissioner John Paul Young for a critical need of marked patrol units for the Shreveport Police Department. That resolution was dismissed recently by the Commission. We have spoken with Commissioner Ron Cothran and Commissioner Grace Ann Blake since that vote. We are respectfully requesting that this resolution be reconsidered and sent to the public safety committee.
We are the Shreveport Police Officers Association, the largest police union in north Louisiana. We are a union dedicated to the profession of law enforcement, since 1964. Over the course of the past two years, we have discussed the critical need for police cars with Councilman Gary Brooks and other city council members. Recently, the council voted to purchase 60 marked police patrol cars. We currently need 200 marked patrol cars. While the city council considers ways to purchase further units, we struggle with a fleet of high mileage, and high maintenance patrol units. The resolution filed by Commissioner John Paul Young was at our request with the assistance of Councilman Gary Brooks. The request is due to dire need. If you honor this request, we will still need 100 marked patrol cars as soon as possible.
We are a voluntary member-based organization of working police officers. We do not submit "wish lists" to government agencies. We are not an NGO asking for a donation. The request we have made is for marked patrol units that answer calls for service to your constituents every day. We have not had any political intent while making this request, however, politics has found its way into this sincere appeal we have made to the Caddo Parish Commission. We are aware of the "wish list" that has been countered since we have submitted our resolution with the help of Commissioner John Paul Young. It was never our intent to cause any encumbrance upon this body. We feel that the request for marked patrol units to serve the citizens of Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, is probably the farthest we could be from a political ploy. We simply need police cars to get our jobs done.
Some might speculate as to why we would ask. That answer is simple. We are the men and women that serve the citizens. We are the men and women that drive these marked patrol cars in the city. I will allow you to speculate why we do not have a sufficient fleet of patrol cars. Perhaps there are many questions of how we come to need 200 cars. We can have that discussion at your request if you should ever want to know our professional opinion of this issue. Until then, we simply request that you, as a governmental body, seriously consider the resolution that Commissioner John Paul Young was gracious enough to file after we answered the questions that concerned him. Commissioner Young has stipulated, based on detailed conversation, that the units provided by a vote of the commission are only for assigned take home units by uniformed Officers. We agree to the resolution as written.
We respectfully ask that you consider the resolution as written by Commissioner John Paul Young. We publicly refute any attempt, by anyone, to substitute or defer the requested 40 units with some "wish list" that would equal the same dollar amount. The dollar amount was reached by the cost of a marked patrol car multiplied by the number of units requested. We would request that any other requests for SPD equipment go through the process and obtain a sponsor for that resolution. We feel they should adhere to the same process for their request without cause or effect to our request. In our opinion, the attempt to block our request is dishonorable. Please consider our resolution after thorough consideration and prayer, then cast your vote as feel you must. We can assure you, any politics that you have been burdened with was not by our intent.
Honorable Commissioners, we are trying to serve your constituents, and we simply need the required vehicle to do that. We take our jobs very seriously, and we simply need reliable patrol cars to get the job done.
Thank you for your time and consideration of our request.
President, SPOA
Xe: All Honorable Commissioners of
The Caddo Parish Commission
Jeff Everson