Baton Rouge will receive nearly $64 million in federal funds to expand officer patrols, hire more prosecutors and improve police technology in the parish.
On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche visited Baton Rouge along with national, state and local officials and law enforcement leaders to present the city-parish with $63.5 million from the Department of Justice, which will be distributed over the next three years.
Mayor-President Sid Edwards said the money will be used to expand police patrols, increase prosecution units and modernize police equipment in the parish. Officials will spend the next two months finalizing how the money will be spent before implementing those plans at the beginning of 2027.
“In other words, more law enforcement officers will be on the beat in Baton Rouge, and they'll be working with better equipment, better tech and better info,” Blanche said. “We are committing resources to help BR stop violent crime across the city, especially in the 10 hot spots where 46% of violent and drug-related crime occurs.”
Baton Rouge was announced last Friday as one of four metro areas to receive a piece of the $300 million Model Cities Initiative grant, joining Jackson, Mississippi; Jacksonville, Florida, and St. Louis.
“Certainly this is one of the most historic and significant public safety investments in Baton Rouge’s history,” Edwards said. “This plan targets repeat offenders through increases in law enforcement personnel, technology and prosecution.”
Blanche said the city-parish stood out over nearly 50 municipalities that applied for the grant because Baton Rouge came with a plan to work together with the Department of Justice to reduce the city-parish’s higher-than-average violent crime rates.
“Here in Baton Rouge, we saw a parish and a city that is confronting these severe and violent crime problems,” Blanche said. “It demands sustained investment of law enforcement.”
The Model Cities Initiative was announced in June, enticing 47 municipalities to apply. Twenty-one were semifinalists and 11 were interviewed by the DOJ before the final four were selected.
In Baton Rouge’s application, officials proposed receiving $125 million from the DOJ. While the final number is a little over half that, Blanche said Baton Rouge will receive about the same amount as the other cities.
“What we expected was for cities to come with a wish list for everything,” Blanche said. “We wanted to make sure that we were spending money fairly, not just in Baton Rouge, but to the other winning cities and the cities that didn’t win.”
Recipient cities were required to submit certified assurances that they would comply with a federal statute that says state and local government cannot prohibit local agencies from sharing information on an individual’s citizenship or immigration status with federal immigration authorities.
“Baton Rouge has committed to work with federal law enforcement to bring down violent crime,” Blanche said. “Does that mean that there are people here illegally that may get arrested? Yes. If there were no Model Cities program, though, there are still people in Baton Rouge that are here illegally that were gonna get arrested. This isn’t a shift or policy or procedure change in Baton Rouge.”
Those requirements caused some cities like New Orleans and Houston to back out of applying for the grant. At Wednesday’s news conference, Gov. Jeff Landry called out New Orleans for not applying for the grant, saying Baton Rouge decided to willingly work with the DOJ.
“New Orleans made an intentional decision not to apply,” Landry said. “They chose play politics with safety. The leaders here in Baton Rouge, that was not the choice they made. They decided to put the citizens first.”
According to the application packet, recipient cities may have to reimburse the federal government if federal agents are called to assist during a violent crime surge or public disorder. Blanche said the money given through the grants will not have to be reimbursed, though.
“This is money that the Department of Justice gets from Congress, and we’re spending it in a way authorized by Congress,” Blanche said. “This isn’t a loan; this isn’t a program that has to get paid back. These are grants.”
From 2021-25, Baton Rouge authorities responded to more than 1,300 nonfatal shootings, 12,000 shots fired calls and 1,200 armed robberies, Blanche said. The average homicide rate is roughly three times that of large U.S. cities over the past two decades, Landry said.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill referenced last week’s fatal shooting of 13-year-old Madison Harris, saying that violence to youth is an even more important reason Baton Rouge needs the money.
“In the last two years, we’ve lost two 8-year-olds, a 12-year-old and two 3-year-olds,” Murrill said. “We’re losing children in our community to gang violence they aren’t even a part of.”
This is another step in investing in public safety in the city-parish, as Edwards said the parish has brought down overall crime by 20% this year. In April, the Metro Council approved historic pay raises for Baton Rouge police officers, making them the highest-paid in the state.
The Baton Rouge Police Department is currently down about 170 officers. However, inquiries from people interested in joining the department rose by about 300% from 2025 to 2026, prompting Police Chief T.J. Morse to say his “cautiously optimistic” goal is to add up to 75 officers by the end of 2027.
“This is not a giveaway; it’s an investment,” Edwards said. “The DOJ is investing in Baton Rouge because of the returns we’ve already shown in our investments in public safety.”