Shreveport police officer shortage grows

SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) — Two growing problems but with no immediate solutions.

In the city of Shreveport, while we continue on this record trend of homicides in 2023, the city police force is still down well more than 100 officers.

Police officials tell us the department is 135 officers short despite constantly recruiting. In October 2021, the department was shy 110 officers.

“We have been short for quite some time now,” police Cpl. Christopher Bordelon told KSLA News 12.

The shortage comes amid a violent start to the new year, with 17 homicides to date. The latest victim is a 23-year-old woman who was beaten.

“We are allocated for 581 officers. Right now, we are approximately 135 officers short,” Bordelon said.

Despite the shortage, police officials say it does not directly impact Shreveport’s increasing crime.

“Well, we can’t say for certain that it necessarily impacts crime,” Bordelon explained. “What it has done is made our officers have to really close in the ranks, and we’ve had to eliminate some specialized units.”

The staffing shortage also means it takes police longer to conduct investigations.

“In terms of certain investigations, they may take longer because we don’t have the manpower that we’re allotted for those investigations,” Bordelon said.

Police officials say although they’ve been recruiting, they expect the officer shortage to possibly increase, with several officers retiring this year.

“We are constantly adding personnel, so we are short people but we’re constatly hiring people,” Bordelon said. “We have to account for people who are reaching the end of their career and retiring. That is something that ultimately we will be facing as a struggle in the future.”

Meantime, police officials plan to combat crime by installing more cameras throughout the city through the real-time crime center and by confiscating illegal guns off the streets.

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