East Baton Rouge Parish has received a three-year federal grant of $63.5 million for public-safety work, but local officials and the Justice Department still need to approve a plan for spending the money.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) presented the award in Baton Rouge on Nov. 4 and published an announcement the next day. The parish's Nov. 4 statement called it a $63.5 million grant. DOJ's release printed the figure as $63,532,285 million, an apparent wording error.
The parish is one of four recipients in the department's nearly $300 million Model Cities Initiative. The other selections are Jackson, Mississippi; the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office in Florida; and the St. Louis Police Department in Missouri.
DOJ will work with the parish to complete its public-safety plan. The initiative's notice calls for approval of a detailed implementation plan and final budget, with funds released as milestones are met. The award is expected to run for 36 months, but the sources do not specify how East Baton Rouge will divide the money among programs or agencies.
The initiative allows spending on personnel, equipment and technology, forensic capabilities, mental-health and substance-use services, and efforts to reduce repeat offending. These are program-wide eligible uses; the parish's spending choices have not been announced. No local matching contribution is required. The notice also says award terms will address reimbursement for costs tied to federal law-enforcement assistance during a surge in violent crime or public disorder. The final agreement will establish the parish's specific obligations.
To explain the selection, DOJ cited Baton Rouge figures showing more than 12,000 calls reporting gunfire, over 1,200 armed robberies and more than 1,300 police responses to nonfatal shootings from 2021 through 2025. The department also said the area's homicide rate averaged about three times that of large U.S. cities over the past two decades.
Mayor-President Sid Edwards said the parish wanted the grant's effects to last beyond its term, calling it a “30-year return on investment.”
