Police1 Staff Report
(SHREVEPORT, La.) - Armed robbery prevention is the mandate of a new temporary Shreveport Police Department “Violent Crimes Unit” that officials hope to make permanent, Assistant Police Chief Jim Herring said.
A sergeant and four officers will staff the floating unit that has been designed to address problems that maybe can’t be dealt with by a regular patrol unit,” Herring told the Shreveport Times.
The department once had a “Directed Patrol Unit,” the appeared to have the same mandate as the new temporary squad, the newspaper reported, but that detail was disbanded in August 1999 when Jim Roberts became chief.
The old unit, which caused friction in some communities after a shooting death, was composed of 10 officers and two sergeants and had a different report structure, the newspaper reported.
The new unit’s performance will be evaluated early next year, Herring told the newspaper.