By Tim Reid, Jayla Whitfield-Anderson and Brad Heath
SHREVEPORT, Louisiana (Reuters) -Shreveport Police Chief Wayne E. Smith sits in his office beside a map dotted with pins – each marking one of the 26 murders that have shaken this small Louisiana city so far this year.
He is weighing a proposal floated by President Donald Trump to send National Guard troops into Louisiana to fight crime – an idea backed by the state’s Republican governor but one Smith fears could do more harm than good.
Smith, already facing a shortage of 150 officers, told Reuters in an interview on Thursday that deploying troops could further drain his force as many of his officers also serve part-time in the National Guard.
Smith pauses and looks at the board and its red, blue, and green pins, each color representing the sex or youth of the victim. “I feel that hurt and that pain I feel that I as police chief, this police department has not done enough to protect those people.”
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry said he would welcome federal assistance “from New Orleans to Shreveport,” after Trump said on Wednesday he could “straighten out” cities like New Orleans in two weeks.
The Republican president has come under fire from critics who say he is unfairly targeting just Democratic-run cities, after recently deploying troops to Los Angeles and Washington, and for threatening to send the National Guard into others, including Chicago and New York, against the opposition of local leaders.
Now he is talking about deploying National Guard forces in Republican-led states and cities, saying the troops will be more welcome in those parts of the country. But Reuters interviews with Shreveport’s Republican mayor, its police chief, and over a dozen residents and business owners – including the mother of a recent murder victim – suggest otherwise.
None was enthusiastic about the idea of using the military as a way to fight violent crime.
Shreveport, with a population of 186,000, has a murder rate slightly higher than Washington, D.C. Trump said he was deploying the National Guard there to curb crime even though local police statistics show that violent crime is at a 30-year low.
Smith says low pay and benefits make recruitment tough. If the Louisiana National Guard is deployed in his city or elsewhere in the state his ranks will be thinned out even more.
“A significant number are police officers,” Smith said. “If you call up the guard, then the chances are I’m going to lose some of the ones that I have.”
NO SUPPORT FOR TROOPS
In the streets of Shreveport, Reuters found no support among residents for the deployment of the National Guard in the city.
Some of the more than a dozen residents said they viewed it as more of a political stunt than a serious crime-fighting solution, and a way for Trump to blunt criticism that he’s only targeting Democratic-controlled cities and states.
Shreveport’s Republican mayor, Tom Arceneaux, called the idea “intriguing” in an interview in his office but did not express explicit support for the idea.
Arceneaux said crime was a long-term problem with no quick fixes. State police help and better pay to boost local recruitment might be a better solution, he said.
To be sure, most of the cities in Republican-controlled states with the highest murder rates are run by Democrats, including Memphis and Nashville in Tennessee, according to FBI crime data.
Yet states that voted for Trump in three consecutive elections have a combined homicide rate since the beginning of 2023 of more than 50% higher than the homicide rate of states that never supported him, according to a Reuters analysis of death certificates filed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The states that voted for Trump three times have a homicide rate of 15.7 deaths per 100,000 residents since 2023. The 19 states that never voted for him have a combined homicide rate of 10.2 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Six Republican-controlled and Trump-backing states have sent National Guard troops to Washington, at Trump’s request. Those six states have a murder rate about double that of states that have never voted for Trump, according to the Reuters analysis.
Landry’s office did not respond to questions from Reuters about whether he had officially requested the deployment of National Guard troops in New Orleans and Shreveport.
A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said they did not want to get ahead of any potential announcements by Trump about deploying troops to the state.
City leaders in Shreveport point to the fact that murder rates have been falling, from 80 homicides in 2023, to 52 in 2024. They credit that in part to an increased use of technology, including street cameras and drones.
KIDS NEED PRACTICAL SKILLS
One of the latest victims was 17-year-old Cameron Ballentine, who was shot and killed in the early hours of August 31, a few doors down from where he lived with his mother and sister in the high crime Martin Luther King neighborhood. He was shot multiple times in the street. Police have not yet made any arrests.
His mother, Shannon Ballentine, 48, told Reuters she regularly hears gunfire in her neighborhood. However, she does not believe deploying National Guard troops will make her area safer.
She said there needs to be more investment in after-school programs to keep young people out of trouble and more cops on the streets.
Ballentine, a supporter of Shreveport’s Republican mayor, believes Trump’s talk of sending troops to Louisiana is a calculated move to deflect criticism that he’s targeting only Democratic-led cities.
She said there are better uses of taxpayer dollars to reduce crime than spending it on a National Guard deployment.
“Kids need to be taught practical skills, like how to change a tire, how to sew, how to cook. That will help reduce crime. An idle mind is the Devil’s playground.”
(Reporting by Tim Reid. Additional reporting by Brad Heath in Washington, editing by Ross Colvin and Diane Craft)
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