SOCCER: Six players join their national teams, p. 5
Reveille
FOOD: Check out the area’s best snowballs, p. 9
The Daily
VOLUME 118, ISSUE 141
@lsureveille
thedailyreveille
thedailyreveille
Thursday, June 19, 2014
lsureveille.com
Summer semesters see fewer crimes LSUPD spends off-season preparing for fall
Summer 2012
F
or some, summer is seen as a time of rest and relaxation. For the LSU Police Department, it is an opportunity to be a stronger presence on campus while preparing for the busier semesters. LSUPD spokesman Capt. Cory Lalonde said while the summer semester means fewer people on campus, the number of police officers available does not waver. “The only thing that changes are our arrest percentages and number of calls received, because we have less people on campus to commit crimes,” Lalonde said. The smaller volume of calls during the summer allows LSUPD to be more proactive on campus. The officers patrol the campus more often during the summer, keeping an eye out for suspicious figures. LSUPD also plans more training sessions during the summer season to strengthen its knowledge on
30 65
Fall 2012
JOSHUA JACKSON · Staff Writer
Spring 2013 Summer 2013
228
CRIME, see page 4
Thefts
Arrests
1043
124 156 815
91 102 218
23 52
The only thing that changes are our “arrest percentages and number of calls received because we have less people on campus to commit crimes. ” CAPT. CORY LALONDE LSUPD spokesman
Fall 2013 Spring 2014
Police reports
1100
148 207 812
101 108
data provided by LSUPD graphic by RYAN LACHNEY / The Daily Reveille
BATON ROUGE COMMUNITY
Mall annexation, school system scandal reveal problems Renee Barrow Staff Writer
Small signs reading “I’m in” advertising the City of St. George incorporation cluster outside many Baton Rouge-area homes and businesses and represent the frustrations of the community. A grievance of the Committee for the Incorporation of St. George is the Baton Rouge Metro Council’s recent effort to officially annex the Mall of Louisiana into Baton Rouge proper. “They were trying to put a roadblock in front of us,” said committee volunteer and local insurance agent Darnell Browning. “But we’ve overcome every roadblock so far.” St. George supporter, former state senator and U.S. Senate candidate Woody Jenkins filed a suit
against the City of Baton Rouge and the Metro Council for not following proper incorporation procedure. “The City of St. George isn’t about a mall,” said committee spokesperson Lionel Rainey III. “It’s about 107,000 people wanting a voice in their future.” A deeper issue driving the movement, Rainey said, is the poor performance of the East Baton Rouge Parish School System. “The schools are deplorable,” Browning said. “Nobody’s done anything to improve [the system] in the past ten or fifteen years.” According to Rainey, EBRPSS has consistently been one of the worst performing public school systems in the nation. Rainey said some individuals with children in the parish’s magnet school programs are apprehensive
about creating a new school system, but families privileged enough to be in the magnet system do not outweigh the need for changes. “Middle-class people in Baton Rouge can’t afford to send their children to private schools and may not make it through the magnet school lottery,” Rainey said. “I’m talking about families where mom and dad work and have about three kids, and the median household income is $90,000.” While some may disagree, EBRPSS is under scrutiny for graderecording errors and other issues with academic records. According to the Louisiana Department of Education audit in March, the state is in the process of reviewing the transcripts of EBRPSS high school graduates ST. GEORGE, see page 4
CONNOR TARTER / The Daily Reveille
Signs encouraging citizens to sign a petition incorporating the city of St. George are arranged outside of Megan’s Dress 2 the 9’s on Wednesday.