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.