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City officials break ground on sheriff's office substation in Glen Oaks after gun violence uptick
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BATON ROUGE - Monday morning, city officials broke ground on a new parish sheriff's office substation hoping to address violent crime in the Glen Oaks area.
Councilman Darryl Hurst alongside Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office broke ground on a new Glen Oaks Substation. Officials said the substation project will take about a year to complete.
"My goal was the next ten years not to look like the last forty," Hurst said.
Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said the new substation is the department's seventh substation. This is the third substation created during Gautreaux's tenure as sheriff.
Hurst said the substation comes at the right time, allowing the sheriff's office to have a bigger presence and quicker response times.
"When the shovel hit the dirt, I thought 'Thank you, Jesus,' finally," Hurst said. "This new substation won't stop all violence, but I believe its presence will help deter some of the senseless acts we've seen...If we can save just one life, we're moving one step closer in the right direction."
In the past 14 days, Hurst said there were five murders within a mile of the substation site. The substation will be on Greenwell Street and aims to address an uptick in violent crime in the area, including the shooting of Teressa Calligan, a triple homicide, and a domestic violence incident.
More than $1 million is expected to go into the substation and at least $400,000 in funding comes from the city-parish's American Rescue Plan Act dollars.
"We get more done when we collaborate and communicate," Broome said.
Deputy Capt. Troy Banks will help run the station. Banks is a local to the community, having attended Glen Oaks High School.
He said there will be 17 deputies in the heart of Glen Oaks, and he hopes for more in the future.
"A phone call distance away? Now we're just walking distance away," Banks said.
Eric Lewis is a member of a church that will be built across from the substation and said the groundbreaking is a sign of change.
"If we can continue to do things like this, I believe it will instill greater pride in the Glen Oaks community and North Baton Rouge as a whole," Lewis said.
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