The Professional Standards & Compliance (PS&C) Section was created in 2022 within the Superintendent’s Office to oversee, coordinate, and implement the numerous opportunities for growth, advancement, and enhancement revealed to our agency through ongoing assessments and evaluations. The PS&C Section seeks to build a unified organizational vision focused on 21st Century Policing principles, such as procedural justice, fair and impartial policing, de-escalation, and community engagement. Below are some of the initiatives that PS&C is actively implementing:
-
- Community Engagement: Creating a written policy on community engagement and developing a robust community engagement plan to ensure that Louisiana State Police (LSP) actively engages with the citizens of Louisiana.
- Internal Affairs: Improving the transparency and accessibility of the complaint process to ensure that all complaints are thoroughly investigated and resolved in a timely manner.
- Use of Force: Incorporating additional de-escalation concepts into the use of force policy and strengthening the use of force review process to ensure that force is used only when necessary and in a manner consistent with best practices.
- Crisis Intervention: Updating crisis-related policies to reflect best practices, LSP training, and operational changes to ensure that troopers are equipped to handle crisis situations effectively.
- Fair & Impartial Policing (Stops, Searches & Arrests): Developing a comprehensive stop, search, and arrest policy that exceeds constitutional standards and aligns with contemporary or recommended practices. This includes ensuring that the policy adequately addresses the legal and philosophical principles that support policing in a manner that promotes legitimacy and procedural justice.
- Organizational Culture, Leadership & Professional Development: Reevaluating the five-year strategic plan and identifying specific indicators for community engagement, minority trooper recruitment, trooper and leadership development, and annual mandatory reporting on traffic stops, which includes racial and gender demographics, probable cause, and search and arrest outcomes.
- Recruitment, Hiring, Promotion & Retention: Developing the organization’s recruitment policy and plan to ensure that LSP's hiring and promotion selection tools are valid and reliable.
- Officer Wellness & TEAP: Updating policies to reflect national best practices, LSP training, and operational changes. The Trooper Employee Assistance Program (TEAP) is being strengthened to reflect required protocols.
- Early Intervention Systems (EWIS): Updating the Early Intervention Warning Systems (EWIS) policy to clarify that its purpose is non-disciplinary and upgrading the reporting and documentation processes for EWIS trigger events.
- CALEA Certification: Working towards obtaining CALEA (Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies) certification to ensure that LSP adheres to nationally recognized standards of excellence in law enforcement operations.
- Training & Academy: Conducting a systematic needs assessment that informs an annual or biennial training plan and enhancing the Field Training Officer (FTO) Program.
- Technology & Data Collection Resources: Developing and adopting an organization-wide IT strategic plan to align technology modernization and data collection priorities.
The Professional Standards & Compliance Section is implementing foundational building blocks to advance organizational transformation and implement structural changes that will be essential for these initiatives to be sustained for decades to come.
For more information about the PS&C Section, email [email protected]
