BATON ROUGE - The Thrive EBR plan voters rejected Saturday would have given Baton Rouge Police officers a raise. BRPD Chief TJ Morse says the department is understaffed, and without the raised pay the plan would have given, they will continue to struggle to attract new officers.

"We are 150 short. I showed some of the pay studies people right here in our own backyard paying more money than us, so it is something to be concerned with," Morse said.

The BRPD Training Academy is also seeing low enrollment. Morse hopes that without a raise, resignations do not follow.

“If we start losing officers or not having the ability to have academies, what services are we gonna have to cut?”, he said.

“You’re not going to see as many officers out there on the streets doing certain things, interacting

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