Law Enforcement Advisory Council Process Fosters Goodwill in Louisiana

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February 2026 | Volume 19 | Issue 2

What Are Advisory Councils?

In industry, the movement for Advisory Councils, often referred to as Community Advisory Councils (CAC) or Community Advisory Panels (CAP), gained momentum in the late 1980s after the chemical plant disaster in Bhopal, India. Industry leaders realized that they must do a better job communicating with and listening to the citizens in the communities where they operated to maintain their public licenses to operate.

The concept involves regularly (six to eight times per year) bringing together a group of citizen stakeholders who reside and are active in the communities where industrial facilities operate. Meetings focus on informing and educating the council members on plant operations and any other issues that the council members believe are important.

Each advisory council is managed and professionally facilitated under an agreed-upon set of operating guidelines. Over the last thirty-five years, these councils have played a valuable role in closely linking industry and community stakeholders and in building knowledge, understanding, trust, and goodwill.

Baton Rouge Police Department Chief’s Advisory Council

In 2019, Baton Rouge consulting firm The TJC Group leveraged its industry expertise to establish the Baton Rouge Police Department (BRPD) Chief’s Advisory Council for then-Chief Murphy Paul. This council is made up of representatives of more than twenty-five Baton Rouge community organizations. Several pastors also serve on the council.

Chief Paul summed up the council’s impact: “This panel has helped us navigate through some difficult times in Baton Rouge and throughout our country, and having an experienced and professional third-party facilitation consultant has been instrumental in keeping the meetings orderly and the dialogue candid and productive. In part because of the work of our council, our city has remained peaceful.”

“This council has helped us be better. It is an important part of what we are doing. Sometimes we don’t know if the community doesn’t tell us,” Paul added.

In January of 2022, Chief Paul reported his thoughts on the process and specific accomplishments of the council in a letter to TJC Group President Tim Johnson:

I’m in the process of preparing a report on accomplishments and I have begun thinking about the good work and team-building that has taken place during our Chief’s Advisory Council meetings. We’ve had so many discussions during those meetings about BRPD policy, policing in Baton Rouge, and police reform. Many of our community conversations led to meetings with my senior staff and recommendations to our Policy Committee, which led to policy changes in the Baton Rouge Police department. These Advisory Council meetings initiated the healing process for many in this community and I believe we are breaking down barriers in community-police relations. We understand that we have more work to do to meet community expectations.

Below are several policy changes made from discussions during the Chief Advisory Council gatherings:

Removed the “Filling a False Report law” warning listed on the online complaint form.
Increased the number of supervisor body camera audits per quarter from one to three.
Required a six-month audit of body camera footage for specific internal affairs investigations to determine presence or absence of a pattern of behavior.
Added a civilian/community representative to the interview hiring board.
Required K-9 Officers to use body cameras when interacting with the public.
Placed Baton Rouge Police policies have been online.
Initiated complaints have been initiated through members on the Advisory Board on behalf of citizens who were hesitant to file complaints directly to the department.
Required officers to inform a person of the reason for the traffic stop prior to asking for identification.
Held Community Conversations with trainees in the policy academy.
Added community member input to police officer training.
Inserted community instructors/consultants into the Procedural Justice class.
Temporarily suspended a highway enforcement program due to the number of citations written in disinvested neighborhoods.

Thank you for your professionalism and dedication while facilitating our meetings. I appreciate you and your staff and I look forward to our continued partnership.

Says current BRPD Chief Thomas Morse, “A group like the Chief’s Advisory Council is extremely important because it helps me connect with the community and those stakeholders in the community that really want to be involved. I can have direct conversations, I can answer their questions, I can share my thoughts and concerns, they can in turn share their thoughts and concerns, and we can have those face-to-face real conversations.”

BRPD Chief’s Advisory Council Member Emanuel “Boo” Milton, Founder and CEO of Cure with Love, added, “Something that I learned from being a part of the Chief’s Advisory Council is that not only does community voice matter, but there are designated and organized places for it. You can see things come to life and develop. Policies are being changed.”

Shreveport Police Department Chief’s Advisory Council

In May of 2024, The TJC Group developed and launched the Shreveport Police Department (SPD) Chief’s Advisory Council for Chief of Police Wayne Smith. The council has been a success.

According to Chief Smith, “In order for me to be effective in my community, I must understand my community. A group like this helps me to be embedded in the community because it is a cross section of our community that brings views to the table that I wouldn’t ordinarily get. For them to bring ideas to me helps me become educated and more in touch with our community and its needs. Greater understanding goes a long way.”

SPD Chief’s Advisory Council Member Tim Manger, President and CEO of the Shreveport-Bossier Chamber of Commerce described the council’s importance: “That transparency and that open dialogue is critical for us in the community, but I think it’s also imperative for the Chief and SPD to be engaged directly with our community members to understand, from their perspective, what’s happening. And it’s important for us to be able to understand what the Chief is saying and the work that is going on, again sometimes behind the scenes, to help improve public safety in our community.”

A professionally created, managed, and facilitated advisory council can be a valuable tool to build knowledge, understanding, trust, and goodwill between law enforcement and the communities it protects and serves.

For more information, visit www.thetjcgroup.com.

Tim Johnson
President
The TJC Group