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After a busy first 100 days, BRPD Chief Morse reflects on progress so far
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BATON ROUGE - It's been a busy first few months for newly-appointed Chief of the Baton Rouge Police Department, Thomas "T.J." Morse.
As part of his 100 day plan, he has followed the three steps he outlined earlier this year: gather, gain and give. At a Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday afternoon, he provided an update on his progress so far.
Chief Morse said he has gathered with more than 100 organizations and groups in Baton Rouge, met with every uniformed BRPD officer and held meetings with law enforcement agencies on every level. All of these conversations were for the new chief to listen and collect information about what the community needs to thrive.
In addition to meetings with public officials, Chief Morse also aims to meet more with everyday citizens. He launched a "chat with the chief" program where anyone can make an appointment to sit down and be heard. Additionally, the Baton Rouge Police Department has reactivated their comment section on Facebook so they can hear support and criticisms from the public.
As for the "gain" aspect of Morse's 100 day plan, he says the department has focused on learning about the needs of the police department in order to increase efficiency. The chief began a top-down review of all policies and procedures at BRPD and announced there will be several changes in the future.
One of those changes has already been implemented. Officers now have to fill out a form anytime a strip search is conducted. Chief Morse says the manner in which a strip search can be conducted is likely to change soon as well.
"[It] gives us a little bit more oversight, a little bit more review of when an officer conducts [a strip search]. Very similar to our use of force forms or our vehicle pursuit forms that our officers already have to fill out," Chief Morse said.
The chief said the formation of BRPD's special investigations unit, which launched in March, brings a positive change to the department.
"It was because of that, that we're able to get some indictments last week or two weeks ago with the district attorney's office against this one group in the city," Chief Morse said.
Through a new 'Proactive Policing' measure funded by the City-Parish, the chief is sending officers to patrol high-crime areas where data shows violence is likely to occur.
"We're going to do our best on the police side as well with special patrols targeting certain areas. Proactive patrols and kind of keeping our foot on the pedal," Chief Morse said.
He also believes intervention with the city's youth is the key to preventing criminal activity. In the coming months, he plans to unveil a youth advisory council.
"I'm looking at high school, college-aged kids who want to be involved who maybe feel like they don't have a seat at the table where the adults are. That they can come and talk about things that are specific to them."
That point brought him to the "give" portion of his plan, which entails connecting more with the community through neighborhood walks every Thursday and social media posts to show what officers experience at work every day.
If residents wish to aid the effort in fighting crime, they can sign up for the Page-Rice camera initiative, or ConnectBlue Program, which installs and grants BRPD access to public-facing cameras at homes and businesses free of cost.
So far this year, BRPD officers have seized 480 firearms, arrested 1,116 people on felony charges and taken 261 juveniles into custody on felony charges. As of the beginning of May, nine juveniles were arrested by BRPD for homicide. During the entirety of 2023, the same number of juvenile homicide arrests were made.
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