BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The Baton Rouge Police Department said there were 33 homicides in Baton Rouge in the first three months of 2024. It’s more than double what it was for the same quarter of 2023.

The police department’s Crime Trend Analysis reports another four homicides since the start of April.

Police said Baton Rouge had 81 actual homicides in 2023. That doesn’t include negligent homicide or self-defense slayings.

“In my first 50 days, I sat down with all shifts of uniformed patrol and their supervisors. I have directed my officers to engage in proactive policing in addition to the nearly 30,000 calls they’ve responded to so far this year,” Chief Thomas Morse Jr. said in a March press conference.

Morse has put more police units on the streets and is already seeing benefits from making arrests and seizing illegal firearms and narcotics, he said.

As of April 12, police said they made 868 felony arrests in the first quarter and seized 363 firearms.

About 134 felony arrests have been made in April so far, according to the data report, totaling 901 so far this year. At this time in 2023, police had made 1,134 felony arrests.

Law enforcement plans to tackle gang violence

The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office and the Baton Rouge Police Department have created new units. The units focus on crime related to violent groups.

Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said the EBRSO Gang Intelligence and Enforcement Unit will work with the homicide unit. They will also work with the School Drug Task Force and Special Operations Intelligence Division, EBRSO Investigative Support Unit, EBR Parish Prison, and EBR District Attorney. 

Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said BRPD’s Special Investigations Unit is aimed at “dismantling criminal activities perpetrated by groups and gangs.”

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