Pubdate: Wed, 25 Sep 2002
Source: Advocate, The (LA)
Copyright: 2002 The Advocate, Capital City Press
Contact:  http://www.theadvocate.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2
Author: Ryan Goudelocke

SOME OFFENDERS MIGHT SOON FACE TIME IN CITY JAIL

Law enforcement authorities and judges are close to an agreement that would 
eliminate potential due process problems for so-called "quality of life" 
offenders, allowing authorities to imprison them instead of just issuing 
them a ticket.

The Constable's Office and City Court may approve -- within the next two 
weeks -- a Police Department plan to incarcerate, if only briefly, people 
cited for offenses, such as noise violations, drug possession and 
prostitution, Constable Reginald Brown Sr. said Tuesday.

Under the plan, Brown said, police would book "quality of life" offenders 
into city jail downtown, which is normally used only by deputy constables 
and has space to detain as many as 150 people each day.

In the past, booking offenders into city jail raised questions about 
guaranteeing them due process. Brown's office doesn't staff the jail past 
about 10 p.m., so those arrested must be released or have the chance to 
bond out before then. Brown said getting minor offenders off the street 
will restore confidence in police and reduce sometimes meaningless tickets.

"(Police officers) are humiliated," Brown said. "The person walks down the 
street laughing and grinning, balls up the ticket in front of their 
friends, and says 'I told you they couldn't do nothing to me'."

Police Chief Pat Englade and Sgt. Charles Armstrong revealed details of the 
plan at a town hall meeting Monday.

"This way we get their (names in the system), get them fingerprinted," said 
Armstrong, the Police Department's community policing coordinator. "It's 
really got a lot of benefits."

Another benefit is not having to send people to Parish Prison, which is 
often overcrowded, Englade said. Many of the inmates there have been 
accused of committing violent crimes, he said.

"You can't fit another person in there unless somebody gets out," Englade 
told Metro Councilman Charles Kelly and residents of north Baton Rouge. 
"Sometimes we've got to ride around with (felons) or babysit them. . I 
don't think police officers want to take them home."

Even when police catch misdemeanor offenders, Englade said, they often are 
issued a summons for court later.

When suspects don't show up in court -- Englade said as many as 80 percent 
of noise ordinance offenders skip their hearing -- judges usually issue a 
bench warrant for their arrest.

"We have a backlog of 60,000 warrants in Baton Rouge," he said.

Englade said he hopes the plan will change that trend.

"We're just trying to get them to take responsibility, to some extent," he 
said. "This way we can really have some consequences."

Many residents who attended the meeting at Delmont Service Center off 
Hollywood Street said they liked what they heard.

"I want them to put some pressure on the people selling dope in front of my 
rental house," said Lee Bisselm, who rents a house right next door to his 
own on East Brooks-town Drive. "They've threatened my life before, because 
I'll call the police on them."

Vay Walker, who lives just down the street from Bisselm, said she watches 
drug deals go down every day in the middle of the street. She calls the 
police whenever she sees them, and lauded Englade's department for their 
numerous recent sweeps into the blighted neighborhood. But neither Englade 
nor Brookstown's residents are satisfied with their progress.

"We know everybody in the world knows when the police are coming," Englade 
said. Bisselm and others said they've seen the police scanners carried by 
drug dealers to monitor police presence.

Some of those attending the meeting, which Kelly said he puts together 
three times each year, voiced objections to law enforcement's single-minded 
pursuit of Baton Rouge's serial killer.

"The focus has been on these three women," one woman said. "What about all 
the others?"

The slayings of more than three dozen women in and around Baton Rouge in 
the past decade remain unsolved.

Englade said he was chief of detectives during an investigation in 2000 of 
several slayings -- some of them prostitutes -- and still regrets that more 
public attention didn't fall on the case.

"I'll tell you how many people, including myself, gave a damn," he said, 
and held up five fingers. "The five detectives who worked on those cases."

Still, several people thanked Englade and the department for their efforts.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom