The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office is reporting a steady decrease in homicides since 2007. Homicides for EBRSO decreased from 21 in 2007 to 18 in 2008, a 14% decrease. In 2009 EBRSO detectives worked only 11 homicides, an almost 39% decrease.

In 2008, seven of the 11 homicides occurred in the Gardere area, accounting for almost 40% of all EBRSO homicides for that year. In 2009 only one homicide occurred in the area, an 86% decrease from the previous year.

“I’m pleased we’ve seen such a decrease in homicides worked by the Sheriff’s Office,” Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said. “Though, one is too many.”

Sheriff Gautreaux attributes the decreased homicide rate to targeted patrols, community outreaches, and aggressive investigations.

“I think our community outreaches are paying off,” he said. “We hope that we have built a bridge between residents and law enforcement that has made them feel comfortable calling us with information. Often times, if they will approach us when things are getting out of hand, we can do our best to prevent violence from escalating.”

He said there are always those crimes that law enforcement can do little to prevent, like the shooting December 23, 2009 at Grady Crawford Construction in which two women were gunned down by an ex-employee.

All death investigations are currently worked by the Sheriff’s Office homicide unit, created by Sheriff Gautreaux in 2008. Prior to April 2008 detectives from the General Detectives unit worked murders while also working other general investigative cases. Sheriff Gautreaux said he belives the unit allows detectives to specialize in homicides and has helped them solve more cases.

According to the Sheriff’s Uniform Crime Reporting statistics so far for 2009, overall violent crime is down. The Sheriff’s Office hopes to release all UCR numbers in the next few months.

“We are going to continue to be vigilant in our patrols, community outreach and investigations in order to do what we can to prevent crime from occurring and solve those that do occur,” Sheriff Gautreaux said.

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Casey Rayborn Hicks
Public Information Director
East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office