Need you, chief

Never before has Baton Rouge needed a stronger leader in our police chief like we do right now.

Our already alarmingly high murder rate tripled in the first two months of this year, making it more urgent than ever that Mayor Kip Holden select a new chief of police who has proven he or she can do this job.

The applicants from within local law enforcement agencies should be given no favor. Rather, they should be compared side-by-side with the top candidates from other cities and states. The mayor needs to find an experienced law enforcement professional who has reduced crime in a tough urban environment like Baton Rouge.

Last year, the murder rate leapt within the city limits while killings in the parish remained flat. This year, violence has spilled beyond the city limits and into Sheriff Sid Gautreaux’s jurisdiction.

The new chief will have to move beyond turf rivalries and forge real partnerships with other police agencies, and not merely stand together in the spotlight of isolated successes at press conferences.

A recently created multi-agency task force of state and local cops is a good start. But defeating violent crime here will require more than a handful of officers cooperating on high-profile cases.

We need a police chief who is humble enough to share the limelight with other departments, who is willing to ask for help when it’s needed, and who is strong-willed enough to take whatever prudent, politically unpopular steps are necessary to reduce violent crime.

There are plenty of rank-and-file officers within the Baton Rouge Police Department who have been putting their lives on the line for years, only to see our violent crime rate spike. The new chief needs to energize these brave men and women who serve and lead them so that their efforts bring us all a safer community.