City Council Pulls Funding for Domestic Violence Center Proposal

The Shreveport City Council has pulled the proposal to spend $125,000 to fund staff at a proposed Domestic Violence Center at the North Market Street Police Substation.

The money was going to come from funds set aside for police equipment for the city of Shreveport. Mayor Tom Arceneaux says he was not consulted about this plan that was developed with others in the law enforcement community.

READ MORE: See what North Market Substation Looks Like

The money was expected to go to the Caddo Sheriff to fund a director and other staff for the Domestic Violence Center. But there has been an outcry from the public about taking money from the police budget to pay for staffing at this complex. Questions came up about who would fund this in the future. Would these folks be city employees. How much control would the city have over this center?

Several of these questions were not answered. Caddo Sheriff Henry Whitehorn is expected to move forward with the Domestic Violence Center. He is planning to hire staff to make sure victims can get the help they need in dealing with this traumatic crime. But Sheriff Whitehorn tells KEEL News he plans to locate this Domestic Violence Center at 1501 Corporate Drive across the street from the Caddo Correctional Center.

Help is expected to be available for getting protective orders to finding temporary housing, if necessary. Victims will also be directed to other services like counseling, job training, transportation, advocacy and more.

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Stats show 30% of Shreveport's violent crimes can be traced back to domestic violence and leaders say we do need to do something to address this problem. Shreveport is not the only city seeing an increase in domestic violence. Many communities are also seeing increases in these crimes.