BOGALUSA, La. — Crime isn’t just a big city problem. The small city of Bogalusa has also been rocked by deadly violence over the last year, and it’s continuing into 2023 too. According to the Bogalusa Police Department, there were nine homicides in the city in 2022, the most the city has ever seen in a single year.
“It’s shocking to know we had that many. Our average is two to three a year and then we’ve had a couple years more than that. You kind of expect it to go up and down but 2022 was bad, it just kept coming and coming and you think good gracious how many more and by the end of the year we were up to 9 and it was overwhelming,” David Miller, Captain of the Bogalusa Police Department’s Detective Division.
The rise in crime is coming at a time when the police department, like many others across the state, is short on officers. A lower staff than usual combined with the rise in crime is having an impact on the department and the city.
“Our manpower is definitely down, it’s down a lot more now than it was when I was first hired I’d say almost 40 percent lower than when I was hired and crime isn’t any better, so it stretches the guys thin. So it’s harder to be out there and be present police the neighborhoods and make a connection with the community when there’s so few of you and you’re answering so many calls,” Miller said.
Newly sworn-in mayor, Tyrin Truong sent a letter to Governor Edwards asking for resources to help combat the spike in crime. In the letter, Truong asks Governor Edwards for help from the state police and the National Guard, but Miller doesn’t think the city’s crime problem is at the point right now, where they need the military.
“I think it’d be great to have some additional help, I don’t know how realistic it is to ask for our military to come in. I think it’d be great to have extra help, I believe the right approach would be more so to try to recruit more police officers and hire personnel and do it that way but sure if you want to send extra help we can always use some extra help,” Miller said. “I don’t think we’re in a place where we need to ask for the military to come in and do those types of things but at the same time we’re short on manpower and I respect the fact the mayor wants to reach out for more personnel.”
The police department says the Mayor is working on getting crime cameras they believe will work and help supplement the low staff. In a comment to WWL, Councilmember Gloria Kates says the city is doing everything it can to put in place a mechanism to decrease crime, including mentoring and possible curfews.