Shreveport’s Fire Crisis: Commissioner Calls for Urgent Police Action

SHREVEPORT, LA - A Caddo Parish Commissioner has some harsh words about the lack of enforcement on vagrants setting fires in the Highland Neighborhood in Shreveport. John Paul Young is calling on the police department to take action and help stop this problem.

Young says:

It is very obvious when a house is vacant. You would have to be an absolute fool not to be able to tell that a house with no door and no windows, no electricity and no water is vacant and the people who are living there have no business being there and they should be removed.

He had a direct message about Police Chief Wayne Smith.

"Our police chief lives in Keithville, not in Shreveport. He does not live in a neighborhood that is being burned down by meth heads. Something has gotta change and it's gotta change fast."

Fires In Highland Impact the Entire Neighborhood

We are gonna lose another house and the neighbors are in danger too. One day we are gonna lose a firefighter. This is a serious problem. Our city is being burned down and we don't have the guts to stop it.

Young says the problem is with drug addicts getting into these vacant homes.

We are losing about a house a week in my neighborhood to fires started by meth heads. It's a very serious problem. The neighbors gets burned out of their homes. they can't live in their homes any more. My neighborhood is being burned down right now. In the next four days another house will be burned down by meth heads in my neighborhood.

You can view Young's comments at about 30 minutes into this video.

Young explains what the police leadership is saying about vagrants.

The assistant chief of police came and said when they see people in vacant houses that have no doors, no windows, no water, no power, they don't take em out. They leave em in there because they're not sure they don't the have the right to be there.

The Shreveport Police Association issued a statement saying they will not tolerate such insults from public servants. The SPOA says even more inflammatory comments were made by Young during a planning meeting prior to the Commission's work session. The group has filed a public records request for the minutes and recordings of that meeting.