Shreveport City Council members react to change of leadership in SPD

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - Wayne Smith is now the substitute chief of police for the Shreveport Police Department, with Ben Raymond stepping down after three years.

Smith tells KSLA that he will be working on things right out of the gate.

“Well, a lot of things are going to be done in the coming months to help that. One of the things is stronger recruitment, a stronger emphasis on recruiting. We got to get those officers more help. All of them — all of us are having to work a lot extra, double shifts. Get them some help so they can have a little bit more free time,” said Smith.

It was almost three months before Mayor Adrian Perkins told the public he had asked Raymond to resign from his position. Some on city council say they aren’t impressed that Perkins didn’t keep the city’s elected leaders in the loop.

One thing council members LeVette Fuller, James Flurry and Grayson Boucher agree on is that with violent crime on the rise, Perkins owed city council some transparency and should not have kept them in the dark for almost three months.

“The entire production could have been avoided,” said Fuller.

Some on the council think White is a good choice for the job.

“It’s a good choice, but he’s been there 40 years,” said Flurry.

However, Boucher says he believes Perkins is pulling too many strings at police headquarters, saying his interference in SPD business set Raymond up to fail.

“I just don’t think that he was able to do some of the things that he wanted to do. And the charter is very clear. That the mayor is who he answered to,” he said.

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