Mayor-President Broome: Long History of Strained Relations with BR Police Officers

By Woody Jenkins, Editor Central City News

Over her nearly eight years as Mayor-President, Sharon Broome has had a strained relationship with Baton Rouge police officers, which has repeatedly surfaced into public view.

The police have four major grievances against Broome:

•The Mayor-President hasn’t had their back and is always ready to throw them under the bus, regardless of the facts.

•Baton Rouge’s homicide rate can be directly attributed to Broome’s lack of support for adequately funding the Police Department.  

•Broome has failed to address low pay for police officers, as much as 40 percent lower than pay in some suburban departments.  Low pay is key to understanding the severe shortage of personnel and low morale.

•Broome has failed to fill the 100 or more vacancies in the Police Department, adding to slow response times and preventing proper attention to community policing.

Here is a chronology of some of the issues that have surfaced since the Mayor was sworn in:

•Police Chief Carl Dabadie was targeted for removal by Broome.  Chief Dabadie, who was appointed by former Mayor-President Kip Holden, had the confidence of Holden and the rank and file of the department.  Because of Civil Service rules, Broome had no authority to remove the chief nor did she cite any reason for his removal.  Under constant pressure from Broome, Chief Dabadie resigned in 2017.  Holden said Dabadie was treated unfairly by Broome and his departure was a terrible blow to the city.

•Broome appointed Murphy Paul as Police Chief. Over the next four years, there were repeated clashes between Broome on the one hand and the Baton Rouge Police Union and the International Police Union on the other.

•In 2020, Baton Rouge Police Union took out billboards blasting the rising homicide rate and low police pay.  It added, “Enter at your own risk.”  The first billboard cited 46 homicides in the first seven months of the year.  A second billboard said Baton Rouge was the 5th deadliest city in the country.

• Broome criticized the messages, saying they “disparage our community.”  She said the union was “not serious about making Baton Rouge a better place to live.”

•Broome went on radio claiming the union was trying to protect bad cops.

• About that time, a billboard  cited a pay study showing Baton Rouge police earned about 30 percent less than the average in similar departments. The billboard appeared shortly after Lt. Glenn Hutton was killed and another officer wounded when a domes-

tic violence suspect opened fire.

•Broome gave police a 3% pay raise and the Louisiana Legislature gave them another 3%, raising the pay of an officer with six months on 

the job to $34,986 by August 2022.

• Broome’s police chief, Murphy Paul, terminated union Treasurer Siya Creel after Creel gave an interview with Kiran Chawla about the union’s billboards.

• Baton Rouge police officer Siya Creel sued the police department, and District Judge Chip Moore overturned his termination from the force.

• In 2022, Creel dropped the suit after the city paid him $90,000 in damages for violating his freedom of speech.

• The Police Union repeatedly claimed Chief Paul would throw his officers under the bus to avoid criticism of himself. The union put up a billboard near police headquarters, saying, “Defend the badge, not the criminal.”

• Staff shortages in the Police Department grew from 33 vacancies in 2016 to 105 in 2022.

•By the fall of 2022, police pay still lagged for behind the rest of the state and staff shortages remained.  Broome decided to offer a bonus of $15,000 for anyone who completed the police academy and remained one year.  This was paid for with federal funds. It was one-time money and not a pay raise.

•Meanwhile, Chief Paul was defending multiple suits by members of the Police Department, and his legal fees reached $230,000 in 2022.

•Critics said the Chief weaponizes the Police Department’s internal discipline process to go after officers who disagree with him.

• Another member of the police union, Sgt. John Dauthier, who frequently clashed with Chief Paul, was demoted to corporal.  However, the Police Civil Service Board rejected the demotion and restored Dauthier to his rank of Sergeant.

•Marathon sessions of the Police Civil Service Board to deal with the controversies lasted as long as 14 hours, and the board’s attorney Floyd Falcon resigned when his request for more money to cover the marathon sessions was rejected.  The board chairman, who represented the Police Union, also resigned in protest.

•After long Metro Council meetings on the Chief’s actions, Mayor Broome reiterated her support for the Chief.

• A January 2022 report showed that in 2021 Baton Rouge had “the most murderous year in history, as killings rose to an unprecedented height of 149 lives lost due to violence.”

• At least 120 of the murders occurred in the city limits of Baton Rouge with 70802 and 70805 being hardest hit.

• 96% of victims were black. 

• Officials said many of the killings appeared to result from gang violence.

• Almost half of the murders are unsolved.

• Crime rates dropped slightly in 2022 and 2023, and Broome used that drop to justify her reelection bid in January 2024.

• However, by the end of the first quarter of 2024, murders in the parish rose to 36, on track to be the highest in history. Nevertheless, Broome has continued her campaign.

•The longest period without a murder in 2024 is 11 days.

•Meanwhile, Broome shut down the Narcotics Division of the Department and the BRAVE unit because of scandals.  BRAVE was reportedly operating a “torture chamber” but Broome said she had no knowledge of the program until she saw media reports.  Critics have said if the Mayor did not know about the BRAVE facility, it was incompetence and if she did know, she was complicit.