Louisiana GOP Gov. Jeff Landry has declared a state of emergency due to a police officer shortage.
Landry’s executive order issued Thursday lifts limits on how many new employees Louisiana sheriffs can hire and on payroll increases for their departments.
Landry, who previously had a career in law enforcement, said that police departments in the state are experiencing record-low employments “resulting in increased crime and less public safety.” As of July, sheriff’s offices statewide were down 1,800 deputies, Landry said.
It’s already well-known that data collected and reported by police departments is pretty horrid. Tons of data that SHOULD be kept and reported isn’t, and tons of policing agencies don’t want real stats getting out. Justice-related data has always been iffy.
So what I’m saying is we shouldn’t even trust too much what we do currently know. They’re not that solid of data for most justice related datasets.