East Baton Rouge Parish Puts Peace Over Everything When Improving Public Safety

Leaders in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, are working together with community partners to take an ecosystem approach to addressing violence and make their community safer.

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East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, is taking a new approach to public safety. Recognizing that law enforcement cannot deliver public safety on its own, Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome is making a real difference by bringing together government, law enforcement officials, and community organizations. In September 2020, she launched the Safe Hopeful Healthy Initiative, which works in partnership with community organizations to address the drivers of crime and violence and center a “culture of health” in policy and practice changes.

East Baton Rouge Parish is working to move past distrust between police and the communities they serve, to heal from trauma, and to bring a greater sense of safety to the city. The mantra of the initiative is “peace over everything.”

This video was produced in partnership with the National League of Cities’ Reimagining Public Safety initiative.

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