NEWS RELEASE
Contact: Daphne Levenson
Gulf States Regional Center
for Public Safety Innovations
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6962
http://www.gsrcpi.org
9/19/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES – The Gulf States Regional Center for Public Safety Innovations (GSRCPI) has received a $500,000 congressional appropriation to provide law enforcement training in areas of southeast Louisiana impacted by Hurricane Katrina.
GSRCPI will provide training in specific topics related to the rebuilding. In its funding proposal, the Center cited the loss of experience, training, and seasoned law enforcement personnel due to Katrina and its aftermath as creating an emergency state for south Louisiana law enforcement. According to GSRCPI Executive Director Daphne Levenson, law enforcement agencies lost scores of experienced personnel because of Katrina and related issues.
“Peace officers and ranking law enforcement leaders left their agencies for any number of reasons: to care for loved ones, loss of their homes, family pressure to move or retire, stress, financial reasons, loss of residents in areas resulted in less officers required, and many others,” said Levenson. “This loss of experience, training, talent, and skills could not have come at a more devastating time.”
Levenson said the region is dealing with many issues that were not present before Katrina: an influx of devastation, renovation and construction personnel resulting in an bringing with them new customs, languages and challenges, displaced persons, scams and contracting disputes, an ever changing physical environment and new challenges for schools and homeland security. Other issues include a more comprehensive emergency preparedness, a highly competitive and understaffed law enforcement workforce, a more challenging hiring environment, new law enforcement technologies, ever arising risk management issues, rising expectations of the public, fierce media scrutiny, limited budgets, and possibly the most distressing aspect, a very young, inexperienced, law enforcement workforce to handle all these new challenges in this extremely stressful environment without the essential training needed to help them face these challenges.
Over the next two years, GSRCPI will work to train law enforcement on a variety of topics including: Gang Education and Effective Prosecution, Officer Stress and Survival, Managing Across the Generations, Diversity with a Hispanic Concentration, Ethics and Integrity, Crime Scene Investigation: DNA 101, Risk Management Certificate Series, Developing Law Enforcement Managers and Middle Management
According to Levenson, GSRCPI will also work in depth with the law enforcement leaders of the region to ensure the training delivered is what they need, where they need it and in time increments that accommodate the limited staffing available in this recovery environment.
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