Shreveport City Council members called for a coordinated response with law enforcement, the district attorney’s office and local nonprofits after council members and the police chief described a recent surge in domestic-violence incidents that have led to homicides.

A council member said the city has seen “too many domestic violence calls that we're seeing ending in tragedy,” and asked Chief Wayne and other partners to organize a meeting to pool resources for a public-education campaign and service coordination. The council agreed to invite the district attorney’s office and local nonprofits that work on human trafficking and victim services.

Council members asked for data to inform the effort. One council member requested incident counts for the last two years and the number of homicides that were domestic in nature, saying, “I would like to just see the numbers for the last maybe 2 years, what how many of the homicides or, you know, how many domestic violence incidents we've had.” The police chief and staff agreed to coordinate and collect relevant statistics for the convening.

Council members suggested the coalition include organizations that handle human trafficking and victim services, and said they would schedule the meeting as soon as next week. The meeting will identify resources, public-education timelines and potential collaborative action items. The council did not adopt formal policy in this session but set the groundwork for an interagency convening.