Baton Rouge police delayed, denied and dismissed complaints without telling the citizens who made them
The investigative project “In the Dark,” a deep dive into the Internal Affairs Division inside the Baton Rouge Police Department, relied on dozens of interviews and a review of thousands of pages of documents but it began in the parking lot of Triple S Mart where Alton Sterling died from six gunshot wounds delivered by…
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Deeply divided: What’s next for Baton Rouge and the BRPD?
Part 5 of 5 The brawl broke out during the summer of 2019 on a hunting trip in East Texas among a mix of current and former members of the Baton Rouge Police Department. The trip was a tradition that stretched back generations. It was common in the “good ol’ days” for decisions about promotions…
Expecting justice? ‘You just don’t understand how Internal Affairs works.’
Part 4 of 5 The good Samaritans at Southdowns Lounge managed to break up the one-sided beatdown in the parking lot. The victim stumbled to his car and drove off, never to resurface or be named in any official records. But it wasn’t over. The men involved in the attack had moved to the nearby…
Police chief’s push for discipline incites ‘The Resistance’
A history of abuse and misconduct within the Baton Rouge Police Department was very much an issue for Murphy Paul when he became chief in early 2018.
Police officer’s false claim could have sent a man to prison for 50 years
Part 2 of 5 The three-day statewide manhunt was over, and the young man accused of shooting at a Baton Rouge police officer after fleeing a traffic stop was being paraded before news cameras. Raheem Howard, 21, his wrists cuffed behind him and his ankles shackled, shuffled along between two BRPD officers as they made…
‘Baton Rouge, we are sorry.’ A new police chief pushes for change
Baton Rouge had its “George Floyd moment” – social media scrutiny, mass protests and violence – nearly four years before Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police.
After Alton Sterling, a new Baton Rouge police chief wanted reforms. Then the threats began.
When Murphy Paul took over as chief of the Baton Rouge Police Department in early 2018, one of his first major public decisions was whether to fire Blane Salamoni, the officer who fatally shot Alton Sterling in a convenience store parking lot in the summer of 2016. The shooting set off widespread street protests, mass…
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‘I don’t even know if I can trust the police ever again’
Rosalyn Scott’s odyssey in trying to file a complaint with internal affairs illustrates how often residents are too discouraged or too intimidated to bring their complaints forward for official review.
A bike ride becomes a nightmare encounter with police
Part 4 of 5 BATON ROUGE – Nikita had known the old man for nearly two decades and she could not recall a single time she had seen him cry. But when she opened the door on that Tuesday evening in 2014, she found her friend and father figure, Edward Butler, 73, in tears, his…
After Alton Sterling protests, only one officer was investigated – for questioning police actions
After the Alton Sterling protests, only one Baton Rouge Police officer was investigated. The complaint? The officer had questioned the legality of the police response at the protest that day.
‘They were all there and none of them stopped it.’
In filing a complaint with Baton Rouge Police Internal Affairs, he had put his faith in the system, he said, and it left him feeling alienated and betrayed. His sense of betrayal only grew as he read on.
‘No further action taken’: Who is policing the police?
Baton Rouge police delayed, denied and dismissed complaints without telling the citizens who made them
This investigative series was produced with the support of Freelance Investigative Reporters and Editors (FIRE).
