BATON ROUGE - The East Baton Rouge Parish 2024 comprehensive audit questioned the parish's spending, bringing up excessive police overtime, possible mismanagement in the Office of Community Development and using money intended for trauma centers on programs like "Summer of Hope."

Investigators say Baton Rouge Police Department supervisors weren't keeping track of how often officers were on the clock, as the department spent $9.7 million on overtime, exceeding its budget by $2.4 million. The city blamed an officer shortage along with launching a gun violence reduction program.

Additionally, auditors questioned $1 million being spent on police vehicles with no competitive bid. City officials said the city replaced aging units and said it could only find one vendor due to supply chain issue

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