Bossier City has a crime problem. Nobody's talking about it.
There is one important number that truly defines the impact of crime on a city's residents.
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Bossier City has a crime problem. Nobody's talking about it.
For years, Bossier City residents have been told that we live in a safe, low-crime town. The statistics don't confirm that. And they haven't for years.
According to a standard crime metric, Bossier City has a crime problem. Either city leaders don't admit it, ignore the fact, or cover it up.
The 2023 Bossier City crime statistics, released by the Bossier City Police Department yesterday, were little changed from 2022. That's bad news. The crime rate is still higher than the state and the nation. And yes, in one important measure, it is worse than even Shreveport.
The numbers reported by BCPD seem little changed. There were 20 fewer total crimes reported in 2023. One more homicide than in 2022. Fewer aggravated assaults and burglaries. However, rapes, auto thefts and armed robberies increased.
The violent crime and property crime numbers by individual categories vary from year to year. But one important number truly defines the impact of crime on a city's residents.
Crime per 1,000 residents
The critical measure: overall crime per 1,000 residents. As you can see from the chart below, in both violent crime and property crimes, Bossier City crime per 1,000 residents is higher than Louisiana overall — and the nation.
While Shreveport has a slightly higher violent crime rate (8.17 to Bossier City's 7.4), Bossier City has a much higher property crime rate per 1,000 residents — 42.05 to Shreveport's 38.25.
The overall crime rate per 1,000 residents in Bossier City is 49.5 — Shreveport's is 46.41.
Bossier City has a crime problem. Nobody's talking about it.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office released the parish crime report in February. BossierNow has been asking for the City to release its crime report since April 5. It was only when we told the Chandler administration that we would be submitting a Freedom of Information Act request for the data that the City issued the crime report to all media on Wednesday.
In the first year of Bossier City Mayor Tommy Chandler's administration, the mayor and then-acting Police Chief Chris Estess held a press conference on January 26, 2022, to announce that crime was down in 2021. The mayor had been in office just six months, and Chief Estess was fired by Mayor Chandler eight months after the press conference.
FBI crime statistics show that, in fact, violent crime was up in 2021 in Bossier City, while property crimes edged lower.
A 2022 Neighborhood Scout analysis of FBI crime data proclaimed:
"With a crime rate of 57 per one thousand residents, Bossier City has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes — from the smallest towns to the very largest cities," the report said.
"Within Louisiana, more than 94% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Bossier City. In fact, after researching dangerous places to live, NeighborhoodScout found Bossier City to be one of the top 100 most dangerous cities in the U.S.A."
The 2023 overall crime rate per 1,000 residents of 49.5 is an improvement, for sure. But as we've shown, it is still well above the state and national average.
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