BATON ROUGE  - Cortana Kiwanis Christmas parade organizers say rising security costs forced the cancellation of what would have been the 75th anniversary of a parade that annually made its way through Baton Rouge to celebrate the holiday season.

Because the costs forced the Kiwanis to cancel, a group of local first responders decided to step in and provide their own parade on Dec. 14.

During the 2024 Christmas parade, violence interrupted the celebration. A shootout during the event left one woman injured, and multiple teenagers were arrested after a shootout during the event. That violence prompted more attention to security, and thus more expense.

This summer, the parade announced it wouldn’t roll, blaming the new, higher cost of police security as the primary factor.

“Historically, the parade has not been charged for police presence, and this added cost would put the parade at a net loss, and likely unsustainable,” a statement from the group said.

However, the cancellation of the Cortana Kiwanis parade isn’t the first time an organizer pointed to increased security costs as a concern.

Baton Rouge Police Chief T.J. Morse admits he wants event organizers, not taxpayers, to foot the rising security bill. Chief Morse said this year, his department faces an increased workload and a shortage of officers on the street.

“We're handling more calls now than we were three years ago,” Chief Morse said. 

That, he says, strains budgets everywhere. Because Chief Morse must ask more officers to put in more extra detail hours to cover special events like parades, Morse said he has to pass those costs on to parade organizers. He’s asking them to pay for the extra hours officers must work to provide parade security.

Morse said that parades requiring more street closures require more officers, thus the cost for organizers is higher.

“You're paying the band, these other fees, caterers,” Morse said. “Pay for security as well."

The Bogan Fire Museum is organizing Sunday’s first responder parade, which is about 1.8 miles. Morse said because the route is relatively short compared to other parades, this one will require fewer than 50 officers.

He said the money to pay those officers is not coming from the department’s budget and organizers are paying $55 per officer, per hour. 

Lon Vicknair with the East Baton Rouge Mayor-President’s office estimated the first responders parade will cost about $10,000. Heightened security is a part of that cost.

"It wasn't at a discount or any kind of special rate,” Vicknair said. “It was what it cost to provide security for this specific parade, this day, with this number of people."

According to Vicknair, the five mayors of East Baton Rouge Parish each paid $2,000 from their cities’ budgets to help defray the parade’s expense. Private donors also stepped up and gave money.

Chief Morse would like to see private event organizers take on more of these new, higher costs.

"If that event costs $20,000 and I'm doing $20,000 out of my overtime budget to do that event, then that's $20,000 less that I can spend on gun-violence reduction patrols," Morse said.

Higher costs have prompted other parade organizers to run online fundraisers to meet the new expense.

The Krewe of Southdowns neighborhood in Baton Rouge has started crowd-sourcing requests for donations for its upcoming Mardi Gras Parade. The krewe, which is run by volunteers, has posted on social media asking people to give just $10 to help defray the higher, extra costs of its upcoming parade.

The First Responders Christmas parade rolls downtown Sunday, starting at 2 p.m.