The Shreveport Police Department will be putting additional officers out on the street to specifically target those violent criminals who would commit armed robberies.

As we move into the holiday season, historically Shreveport has seen increases in some crimes, including armed robberies. The total number of robberies reported through the end of October is slightly up this year when compared to the same time period in 2010 and the Robbery Intervention Detail is being called into action as part of an ongoing effort to reduce the number of those crimes we see occurring in our city.

Working towards that goal, officers throughout the department will be hitting the streets this fall as part of R.I.D., or Robbery Intervention Detail, to proactively target areas of Shreveport where there is traditionally heavy retail traffic. R.I.D. will focus on several different facets of robbery prevention and investigation, including community liaison officers visiting with business owners and management regarding robbery prevention training, plainclothes investigators conducting surveillance or other types of undercover operations, intelligence gathering, and marked patrol units saturating areas to further dissuade any would be robbers. While there have been similar operations in previous years, R.I.D. officers will be relying on tactics that have worked well in the past and employing new strategies as well.

Any business owner or manager that would like officers to come out and put on a free armed robbery prevention seminar for employees is urged to call the Shreveport Police Department’s Community Oriented Policing Bureau at 318-673-6950. The R.I.D. units will be holding a briefing prior to beginning their shift Monday, October 31, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. in the roll call room at the Shreveport Police Complex and our media partners are invited to attend and ride out with one of the officers. Please call Sgt. Bill Goodin at 318-455-2601 for further details.

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