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Here’s how city-parish officials plan to reduce gun violence in Baton Rouge

A coalition of law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and community workers announced the launch of the East Baton Rouge Public Safety Partnership, an action plan with the Department of Justice to reduce gun violence throughout the parish.

The plan is a collaboration between all federal, state and local law enforcement agencies in EBR, the U.S. Attorney’s and district attorney’s offices and Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s office.

The partners first began developing and implementing the plan in February, meeting biweekly throughout the year. The group set four specific goals, summarized as follows:

  1. Conduct outreach to young people involved in violence to provide them with opportunities for a different path in life.
  2. Prioritize gun crimes and high-risk offenders when prosecuting criminal cases, both in district and federal court.
  3. Address blight and infrastructure that contributes to gun violence in neighborhoods.
  4. Identify and focus law enforcement resources on violent individuals and locations, utilizing data, technology, intelligence sharing and proactive policing.

The public safety plan comes on the heels of a business-led crime prevention effort announced by the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and the Baton Rouge Law Enforcement & Criminal Justice Foundation last week. That initiative, named in honor of recent crime victims 3-year old Devin Page Jr. and LSU student Allison Rice, entails partnering with Project NOLA and E-South Technologies to install high-tech crime cameras on a business or surrounding property in high-crime areas.

See the public safety partnership’s website.

This story originally appeared in a Nov. 30 issue of Daily Report. To keep up with Baton Rouge business and politics, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.