BATON ROUGE — A report prepared for a coalition of 450 individuals, businesses and non-profit groups suggested Wednesday that the region could see improved public safety programs if it merged the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office with the Baton Rouge Police Department.

Safe BR hired 21CP Solutions to prepare the document, which also touted the potential for cost savings, increased accountability and greater trust. The entire study can be seen here.

The group said it hopes to reduce the Baton Rouge homicide rate by 50 percent over the next 10 years. It noted Baton Rouge has had more than 30 homicides per 100,000 residents over the past seven years, and that only four large cities have consistently had a rate that high: Baltimore, Detroit, New Orleans and St. Louis.

The report's authors also decried the expense of increased homicides: $301 million in direct costs to state and local governments, $12 million in direct costs to hospitals and insurers and $965 million via lost productivity.

The study group was asked to assess whether merging the sheriff's office and BRPD would reduce violent crime, reduce response times, increase officer pay, attract more officers, strengthen community relations and solve more crimes. It said that a merger is feasible and that if the city-parish spent $325 per resident (the national average) on law enforcement, the city-parish could save $50 million a year.

The study also noted that all vacancies in Baton Rouge's law enforcement community are at the patrol level, indicating that the agencies are "top heavy."

Under the possible merger plan, the sheriff's office would take over BRPD's operations and the city police department would be phased out. The study authors said their work was not an evaluation of either agency, but only a look at how they provide services.

Former BRPD Chief and EBRSO Sheriff Greg Phares says merging the departments is not a good idea.

"There might be a little savings on the top end of administration. I don't think it will be a whole lot. I think there are a lot of disadvantages. The departments run on totally different employment and retirement systems. You're giving the entire power of law enforcement of the parish to one person and that should give people pause," he said. 

A spokesperson for the Baton Rouge Union of Police Bill Profita says that he has not seen the proposal, but the aversion to the idea of consolidation has been well established.

"The sheriff doesn't want it and the police union is on record as being against it," he said.