The mayor of Shreveport says he has searched high and low for as many officers as possible to handle two parades on the same day, in a little over four months. One of them is the giant Krewe of Centaur Parade, which organizers say attracts nearly 200,000 spectators every year. The other parade is the popular, longstanding African American History Parade, which always rolls on the first Saturday of February, as it winds its way through the heart of downtown Shreveport.
But Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux faces what some are calling an almost intractable challenge, “even with help from the sheriff’s office and from the marshal’s office and from state police, to handle two parades at different locations on the same day.” Despite help from outside agencies, the clock is ticking to find another 60 officers to handle security for those two events.
It is the Krewe of Centaur Parade which demands the most resources, the mayor explains, which includes no less than 200 officers. Arceneaux tells us they are now speaking with other municipalities and other groups, as well. “There’s some discussions with some private firms which we could possibly be used for the African American History Parade, as a supplement. And then we’re also discussing with other people who are post-certified. And I’m not prepared to release who that might be until we actually have commitments. But they are people from both in and out of town who would, who have some experience with Mardi Gras parades.” The violence from this year’s parade, back on February 11, prompted changes after the shooting of two people, one of whom died. And a police officer was assaulted, as well, in what had begun as a routine traffic stop. Despite initial plans to start the upcoming Centaur Parade near Veterans Park along the Clyde Fant Parkway, city leaders decided to stick to the historic parade route. It begins at Lake Street in downtown Shreveport, and ends near the Shreveport Duck Pond, at East Preston Avenue and the southern end of East Kings Highway Park. The big change, says the mayor, is that the parade will now begin half an hour earlier, at 2:30 P.M, to finish at dusk, rather than dark. “Because the supervision required, the alcohol consumed because people start setting up at 7 o’clock in the morning. And many of those people begin imbibing at 7 o’clock in the morning or shortly thereafter. And the later the parades go the more problems we will have with alcohol-related incidents.” Just a few weeks ago, speculation about potentially changing the date of the Centaur Parade, which is the younger of the two events, prompted Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser to push back, contending a date change should be a non-starter, considering all the travel plans
already made by international visitors. Mardi gras season also delivers a significant economic impact, estimated to be almost $20 million dollars in 2023 alone. That’s according to the latest study paid for by the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau. That total takes into account all five parades in Shreveport, which include: Sobek, Harambee, Centaur, Gemini, and Highland. But it turns out, that’s only half the equation. Arceneaux says hosting parades is expensive, citing the costs of Centaur and Gemini as examples: “It’s a significant event and an economic trigger. But the city also pays over $300,000 in costs to manage these two parades. So, it’s very significant on both ends.” The second change that arceneaux says the city needed to do was to have some enforcement provisions in the contracts so that if they did not follow the rules, the circumstances that are in the contracts, we had some remedies other than just shutting down the parade, which we obviously we don’t want to do. But there need to be some teeth. “And so, we have used Lake Charles, I think Lake Charles and Lafayette primarily as go byes, in terms of how they handled these circumstances. And we added a bond which I initially had set, we needed $50,000. We’ve reduced that to $10,000 after we kind of made a guess as to what the largest number of fines might be under the circumstances. And so, we’ve reduced it from $50,000 to $10,000, so that we would have access to payment. “ Coming up Wednesday, we will hear a much different perspective on the parades and the police manpower issue. It comes from the longtime president of the Shreveport Police Officers Association, Michael Carter, PhD.
