Letter: Baton Rouge should elect police chief

It is a good thing that our sheriff is an elected official and not an appointed one, or our mayor might have fired him last year.

All the trouble over the signing off by the sheriff so that funds allocated could be distributed correctly, has caused many delays and is not supporting the people of East Baton Rouge Parish.

Since many of the council members were not informed as to the firing of BRPD Chief Dewayne White, the council members should start the ball rolling so that the citizens of Baton Rouge could elect a police chief and not be appointed by the mayor.

Rudy Rizzo

retired outside sales

Central

Comments

1) Comment by Being_Stupid - 19/02/2013

Should we start electing our U.S. Army Generals too?

2) Comment by Melisse3 - 14/02/2013

Why treat the head of the police department differently than other department heads? A mayor is elected by the people to run his/her city, including fighting crime. Why not let a mayor choose the person to run his law enforcement department? Is it really better to have a politician running the police department?

3) Comment by Being_Stupid - 13/02/2013

Due to lack of Metro Council Quorum (missing Trae Welch, Joel Boe, Donna Collin-Lewis) and objection to overrule quorum rules by John Delgado, this matter was postponed for discussion. To be continued..... Stay tune next month for Metro Council Channel 21. (I hate cliffhangers).

4) Comment by phil - 13/02/2013

We can always recall. Maybe we should elect the Police Chief and let him/her appoint the Mayor - just kidding (or am I?).

5) Comment by DMJ - 13/02/2013

I think we could all do with one less election. Mayor/President should appoint chief and Metro Council should get a vote to approve.

6) Comment by Being_Stupid - 13/02/2013

Police Chief should be appointed by Mayor President with Metro Council approval, not elected. What happens if the people elect an incompetent Police Chief? Do we wait until next election cycle to remove them from office? We need a police chief focused on fighting crime, not politics.

7) Comment by phil - 13/02/2013

If the two police departments are ever merged I think it is important to make sure that whoever heads that department is an elected official. In addition, I like what I see on the constitutional sheriff's website and it makes me think that maybe we actually still need two police departments. One possibly needs to be around to police the other one. What we do not need is one police department that is run by an appointed leader especially if the politicians think BR can be made into a quasi police state.

8) Comment by RALLEN - 13/02/2013

Even better, combine BRPD and EBRSO and the electin question is answered plus numerous synergistic advantages.

9) Comment by gary - 13/02/2013

I have no problem with an elected Police Chief for B.R. - just make sure the voters are folks living inside the city limits of B.R. - lets see how that works out.