Caddo Parish Rejects $3 Million for New Patrol Cars

A proposal to spend nearly $3 million dollars from Caddo Parish money to buy patrol cars for Shreveport police will not move forward.

Caddo Commissioner John-Paul Young has asked his colleagues for the money to buy 40 patrol cars for the Shreveport Police Department at a cost of $70 thousand per vehicle.

Young says the Shreveport police department needs more cars and this would make newer models available to more officers. He says this would increase police presence in our neighborhoods because these would be take-home cars for officers.

Why Is This Proposal Being Considered

Commissioner Young also says the starting pay for SPD officers is among the lowest in the area and providing better equipment for the officers could help counter that problem.
Young believes having more patrol cars out in the community could be a major deterrent to criminal activity.

Another key factor in this proposal is the life of take-home police cars. Young says these cars typically last much longer than police cars that are in the “pool” and used by several officers. Young says a take home car can last as long as 10 years while “pool” cars have an average life of no longer than 3 years.

This is not the first time this idea has been brought up. Back in 2016, Caddo Parish paid for several police cars for SPD.

Young asked his colleagues to consider this proposal in the Public Safety Committee, but that proposal failed on a 6-6 vote.

Here’s How the Commission Voted on Buying Shreveport Police Cars

No Votes:
Chris Kracman, Greg Young, Stormy Gage-Watts, Grace Anne Blake, Ron Cothran and Ed Lazarus

Yes Votes:
Victor Thomas, John Paul Young, Roy Burrell, Steffon Jones, John Atkins and Ken Epperson

Shreveport is already in the process of buying 60 new patrol cars and should be taking delivery of those cars later this year.