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Central Police Department looks for funding for full-time officers
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CENTRAL - City council members and the Central Police chief are looking to change a policy to bring in more officers.
A seven-person committee is being put together to find funding for a full-time police department. The committee will include three council members, one member of the Central Police Department, one member of the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office, and two community members who apply.
"They're going to look at everything. We've been putting things together ... How many people we'll need, the staffing, the cost, and we're trying to figure out the funding," Central Chief of Police Roger Corcoran said.
The department currently has 15 part-time patrol officers. They cannot receive benefits, like medical insurance or retirement, through their employer. Corcoran says it's one of the main reasons officers leave.
"It's hard sometimes, you know. You get good people, but they leave to go to other agencies that have full benefits," he said.
Having few officers leads to safety concerns for the ones who have to patrol alone.
"A lot of times we'll have one male or one female officer working by themself, which is not safe. On a good day, we'll have two. I wouldn't want my son or daughter out there working in the middle of the night working by themselves," he said.
Central is the second largest city in East Baton Rouge Parish, spanning more than 60 square miles. Corcoran says with the city growing, more police presence is needed.
"We have these subdivisions coming in, there's other projects in the works, all of the road work. We have to have the people to patrol it," he said.
Corcoran says it would take around $7 million to fund a full-time police department, but that number is subject to change.
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