Through leadership and experience, Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator has changed local law enforcement in a way that will benefit the citizens of Caddo Parish for years to come. Innovative. Progressive. But most of all, in touch with what matters most to Caddo Parish. Keeping our children and elderly safe. Being careful with your money. Reducing crime and protecting your property. With the help of some of the hardest working people in law enforcement, Steve has done all of this and more.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS SHERIFF:
-Crime & Safety:
• Consistently reduced crime in Caddo Parish
• First northwest Louisiana law enforcement agency to purchase and use body cameras (2008)
• Developed and equipped a Mobile Field Force Unit for crowd control
• Created the Financial Crimes Unit with Shreveport Police to improve case efficiency and inter-departmental communications
• Established a Marine Patrol Unit to provide full-time patrols on Red River
• Established a Traffic Safety Unit to fully investigate fatality crashes and serious injury accidents
• Developed and hosted Louisiana's first active shooter training
• Established the Caddo Criminal Justice Task Force to reduce overcrowding at Caddo Correctional Center
-Detention:
• Certified by the Department of Corrections
• U.S. Marshal inspected and certified to house federal inmates
• Employed the only two nationally certified Correctional Health Care nurses in Northwest Louisiana
• Successful record of passing annual health inspections
• Successful record of passing fire inspections
• Provided inmate classes and services including:
➤ HiSET classes for men and women
➤ Parenting classes
➤Substance abuse classes
➤ Job readiness programs
➤Anger management
➤ Religious services
➤ Criminal and Addictive Thinking Program
➤ Cognitive behavior-based group therapy
➤ DOC STR opioid recovery program
➤ Living in Balance
• Built the first re-entry facility in Louisiana, providing over 6,690 soon-to- be released inmates life skills for a successful reintegration into the community. In conjunction with Bossier Parish Community College, programs offered include carpentry and fiber optics training. The Northwest Louisiana Re-Entry program was highlighted in an article recently written by Elise Saloom and published on www.connect@la.gov.
-Training:
• Established a regional training academy for law enforcement personnel from more than 100 agencies
• First law enforcement agency to require all Reserve Deputies to be POST trained
-Sex Offenders:
• Joined with the Louisiana Attorney General to form the Northwest Louisiana Internet Crimes against Children Task Force to investigate and arrest on-line predators
• Conducted the first sex offender sweep by a law enforcement agency in North Louisiana to identify and locate unregistered sex offenders. The Caddo Sheriff's Office currently has a 95 percent registration compliance rate for more than 967 sex offenders living in Caddo Parish.
• Successfully blocked the designation of Caddo Parish as an emergency shelter location for state sex offenders
-Community:
• Built Sheriff's Safety Town, Louisiana's only permanent, interactive safety learning center for children. Safety Town was constructed primarily with private funds. Since 2008, 75,076 second graders have completed the course.
• Started Crime Scene Investigations Camp for Kids
• Continued emphasis on youth by offering Caddo Sheriff's Camp in conjunction with Boy Scouts of America and summer recreation programs at area school gymnasiums as a safe summer activity alternative
• Developed the Youth Firearms Safety Education Camp
• Implemented a First Gun Course to teach safety and skills to youth receiving hunting rifles or BB guns for Christmas
• Started the Distracted and Impaired Driving course for teens
• Developed a safety course for college-bound students to address personal safety, finances, drug awareness, and campus security
• Developed the SOS (Sheriff's Operation Safeguard) Program, providing memory-impaired persons with ID bracelets to help reunite them with their loved ones
• Started the File of Life Program for seniors
• Made Sheriff's Office facilities more available to the public by opening the Academy firing range for citizen gun sight-in days. Citizens can also use sub-stations as a safe place to conduct online classified sale transactions, such as those on CraigsList.
• Formed an Auxiliary Deputy Program using unarmed volunteers to supplement patrol deputies for neighborhood patrols, special event enforcement and directing traffic. Auxiliary deputies are required to complete a 70-hour academy. Caddo Parish currently has 85 auxiliary deputies who volunteer thousands of hours assisting our citizens. First to hold homeowner's rights training
• First to offer concealed carry training
• Formed the Citizens' Problem Resolver (CPR) Program by assigning deputy liaisons in north and south Caddo Parish
• Developed Women's Firearms and Personal Safety Class
• Offered Women's self-defense classes
• Provided Hunter Safety Education Training
• First to offer a church security program
• Provided child safety seat fitting station
• Established a Prescription Drug Drop Box for citizens to safely dispose of expired prescription drugs and held annual safe disposal days assisted by deputies
-Technology:
• First in the area to develop a mobile app to encourage citizens to stay connected with the Sheriff's Office
• First in the area to offer Offender Watch, a sex offender management system and community notification tool
• First in the area to list jail bookings, mugshots, and warrants on-line
• First in the area to provide on-line tax payment service
• First Louisiana Sheriff's Office to have Civil Live Scan, allowing employers or agencies to submit fingerprints electronically to State Police and the FBI for background checks through the Caddo Sheriff's Office
• Implemented on-line payments for citizens to pay traffic fines, probation fees, and courts costs
-Leadership:
• Director of Caddo Parish Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness •Secured a research study of Red River flooding and continues to raise public awareness on the subject
• As chairman of the POST Council, increased training hours for law enforcement officers across the state to become POST certified Increased the number of in-service training hours required yearly
-Cost Saving Building Projects:
• 6,000 square-foot addition to the Regional Training Facility
• Work Release dormitory
• Re-Entry building
• Marine Unit sub-station
• North sub-station
• South sub-station
• Doubled the space for Fleet Services
-Crime Fighting and Acquired Equipment:
• Decreased crime in the unincorporated areas of Caddo Parish since 2001
• Developed new crime fighting services to include:
➤Drone Program with eight FAA certified CPSO pilots
➤Cyber Crimes Unit
➤Mobile Field Force
-Strengthened inter-agency relationships to fight crime by creating and/or helping staff:
➤U.S. Marshal’s Task Force
➤FBI Task Force
➤DEA Task Force
➤Caddo-Shreveport Narcotics Unit
➤Caddo-Shreveport Financial Crimes Task Force
➤Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee
➤ATF Violent Crimes Task Force
-Implemented and hosted active shooter training
-Acquired equipment benefiting deputies, citizens, and public safety agencies including:
➤3-D crime scene scanning equipment for state-of-the-art documentation of crime scenes
➤Side-scan SONARS for marine rescue operations
➤High-water rescue vehicle
➤Sixteen (16) automated license plate readers deployed throughout Caddo Parish to fight crime
➤Sophisticated electronics equipment acquired from the Secret Service for collection of evidence by the Advanced Cyber Unit
➤Body cameras, including the latest 2023 upgrades
➤Side-by-side all-terrain vehicles for Search and Rescue
➤Mobile Field Force equipment for crowd control
➤Mobile Command Post for field operations
➤Glock Model 17 9mm handguns with optic capabilities
➤Automated External Defibrillators (AED) for all sub-stations
➤Narcan for all deputies to counter opioid overdoses
➤Mobile display terminals and cameras in all patrol cars
➤Less invasive full body scanners at Caddo Correctional Center to detect contraband brought to the jail by suspects during booking
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS CHIEF OF POLICE (Shreveport Police Department):
• Immediately increased the number of investigators to Internal Affairs
• Developed an “early warning system” to identify officers with multiple Internal Affairs complaints
• Required all reserve officers to be fully POST trained
• Reduced vehicular accidents through accountability training
• Required all officers to undergo a minimum of 40 hours of in-service training each year
• Decentralized the department by placing responsibility on commanders for crime in each patrol area, regardless of on which shift it occurred
• Mandated “less than lethal” training of all officers to prevent death and serious injury
• Began the DARE program in Shreveport
• Started the “Jump Out Boys” Street Level Interdiction Unit and methodology
• Implemented the first random drug testing policy
• Successfully passed legislation dealing with telephone solicitation, truancy and curfew violations and drive-by shootings
• Began the first Community Oriented Policing strategy with an innovative "Community Liaison Officer” program
• Received a “Weed and Seed” grant from President Clinton to further Community Oriented Policing
•Received a federal Community Oriented Policing (COPS) grant to hire 18 officers to work in the community
• Initiated Volunteers in Policing (VIP). Hundreds of volunteers joined the department as an unarmed auxiliary unit to help direct traffic and to work events.
• Started the first Citizens Academy to educate the community and media members about the job of law enforcement officers
• Founding member of the Gingerbread House and the concept of specialists working with juvenile victims
• Started the area’s first Sex Crimes Unit
• Began the first Domestic Violence Task Force with the YMCA
• Successfully passed legislation and effected the first late hour’s curfew and truancy center in conjunction with the Rutherford House
• Hired the U.S. Department of Justice to train all members of the department in cultural sensitivity
• Hired six Neighborhood Assistance Team (NAT) personnel to be housed in the neighborhoods as civilian liaison members
• Created a “Community Oriented Policing in Public Housing” program with the Housing Authority of Shreveport
• Put into operation a city “Prisoner Work Release” program to reduce the jail population and allow misdemeanor prisoners to volunteer for city labor projects to reduce their sentences
• Constructed a federally approved Temporary Holding Facility that significantly reduced the number of outstanding warrants
• Received a $250,000 federal grant to install computers in patrol cars
• Developed the First Automated Fingerprint Identification System, serving as the “hub” for 32 other agencies
• Implemented the first bar coding system for evidence tracking
• Started the area’s first children’s safety initiative to reduce childhood injuries and death
