Common sense, data help guide police efforts

Thibodaux Police bicycle patrol officers Jacob Hoffpauir (left) and Jamaal King ride Friday through the city.

Abby Tabor/Staff

A police car sits on the side of a road in Terrebonne or Lafourche. It's unmanned, and it's waiting for speeders.



Abby Tabor/Staff

Motorists slow as they pass; not realizing the car is empty.

The tactic, implementing what law enforcement calls a ghost car, is one of many strategies agencies here and elsewhere use to monitor criminal activity and traffic, Thibodaux Police Chief Scott Silverii said.

Each agency utilizes different internal methods, but the goal of the patrols is the same: Prevent crime before it happens, Houma Police Chief Todd Duplantis said.

The key is “to reduce the opportunity to commit crimes by creating the perception of police omnipresence,” he said. “High visibility, random patrols will convince a guy that he's not likely to get away (and) chances are is that he's not going to commit that crime.”

Agencies use a combination of crime data and common sense to determine high activity areas, or “hot spots,” often a blocks-long area, Silverii said. Officials deploy officers and saturate these hot spots not only deter foul play, but also to root out the problem.

“Maybe it's a violator, a drug dealer, who has a lot of foot traffic,” Silverii explained. “Maybe there's a cut through of two neighborhoods, and there's a lot of traffic. Maybe you need to get a street light, a traffic light fixed.”

Houma Police conduct meetings every other week to study where and when specific crimes happen, Duplantis said. They use that information to determine where to concentrate patrols, he said.

“I see there's a pattern of car burglaries, and we come up with a plan,” he said, adding “we've been trying to direct the patrol cars where the crimes are, that's the key.”

Outside of those data-driven efforts, Houma Police assign officers to roam a section of the city, Duplantis said. The agency typically has 20 marked cars patrolling the city during the day and 15 at night, he said.

Thibodaux Police rely almost solely on crime maps and data to determine patrol routes, Silverii said. Instead of dividing the city into patrol quadrants, department officials analyze when and where crimes have occurred and uses those numbers to tweak and moderate their patrol approach daily.

“It's a liquid grid — it's a fluid grid,” he said. “We step back and take a bird's eye view … Cops just riding around looking around prevents nothing. Lack of specificity means nothing.”

Thibodaux deploys about 20 units, including bike and walking patrols, at any given time, Silverii said.

The Lafourche Parish Sheriff's Office also analyzes crime maps and data to determine patrol routes, spokesman Brennan Matherne said.

“It's a lot easier to have data to better place your assets,” he said. “You're not blindfolded.”

Terrebonne Parish Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said his office blends data gathering with established patrol routes to deter crime and traffic violations. He said though his office does use crime maps to determine where the biggest problems exist, he believes the approach has its down-sides.

“Crime is happening pretty much everywhere … over time, your whole map is going to be covered with crime,” he said. “I saw a map of New Orleans. Do you know the only place there wasn't a pin? The lake.”

Larpenter said he meets with his detectives daily to discuss crime spikes, and concentrates patrols accordingly. Day to day, the office works on assigned patrol shifts, and divides its 12 patrol units to assigned sections of the parish.

In addition, there are at least two dozen other officials making the rounds, including narcotics agents, detectives and traffic deputies, he said.

“We've got a lot of patrols at all times of the day,” Larpenter said.


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