BATON ROUGE, La (BRPROUD) — One of the department’s top leaders, Superintendent Col. Lamar Davis reflected on his time at the agency and the several ups and downs he’s encountered.
“There were days that I did not know if I could withstand some of those challenges,” said Col. Davis. “I walked into having to arrest troopers, having to investigate troopers, having a trooper commit suicide in front of his family.”
Davis said he knew he needed to make changes in the agency, including dealing with troopers who were bad actors.
“We remove them from our profession, and I think that was some of the problems we had in the past, no longer are those days,” Davis said.
To get an objective view of the agency, he brought in a third-party company to conduct a top-to-bottom assessment.
“Right when you think you’ve crossed a line and done something great, you’ve done something to benefit the agency or the community, they tell you there’s more to be done,” Davis said.
Through the assessment, Davis said he was made aware of their poor communication.
“Many times when we make those decisions, we don’t think about how it impacts the community, we do not communicate that to our community, then you all are left to say okay what happened, what really happened, why did it happen,” Davis said.
To address this, LSP is posting video updates regularly online. Five of those videos have been posted to date, according to Davis.
“It is important for us to provide you all as much information as possible,” Davis said.
The agency also created a force investigative unit. Davis said these improvements will save lives and cut down on controversy.
“George Floyd. Had this program been in place at that particular point and time, those officers would have not done what they did,” Davis said.
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