With Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins out of town, City Council Chairman and Mayor Pro Tem Jerry Bowman moved to include Ben Raymond among the nominees for the next Shreveport police chief.

Bowman's move is the latest twist in a saga that began last Friday when an advisory committee to Perkins recommended three candidates for police chief -- Sgt. Michael Carter, Lt. Tedris Smith and Assistant to Police Chief Wayne Smith. Raymond, who has been substitute police chief since November, was not among the three candidates whose names were given to Perkins.

Perkins said earlier this week that he had interviewed Carter, Tedris Smith and Wayne Smith.

Bowman's move to include Raymond could solve a dilemma for Perkins who could have chosen from the recommendations and excluded Raymond or chosen Raymond and gone outside of the committee's recommendations.

Bowman's statement follows:

"The selection of the person who will lead the Shreveport Police Department is very serious and this is and has been my top priority, I’m confident that Mayor Perkins will keep his pledge of selecting someone who is committed to community-oriented policing as well as someone with integrity, someone whose qualities mirror the needs of our community as a whole and at the end of the day, someone who will commit to work on bridging the gap between the narrative of “ 2 Shreveport’s (sic)." Substitute Chief Ben Raymond has served in the capacity as Shreveport Chief of Police for the past 10 months. He has garnered the support from a majority of the members of the Shreveport City Council. He has achieved the highest scores on the Chief of Police examination twice. I have been contacted by numerous citizens who have expressed serious concerns about the selection committee’s exclusion of Chief Raymond as a potential candidate for the permanent position of Chief of Police. I have likewise been contacted by several officers of the Shreveport Police Department who have expressed the same concern. In my opinion, based upon all of these factors and concerns, it would be imprudent to exclude Chief Raymond as a candidate for the permanent position of Chief of Police for the City of Shreveport. I wholeheartedly believe and agree that this selection is that of the mayor and not a political fight but a fight for public safety. Therefore, in order to assure the continuity in this fight for public safety, as Mayor Pro tem, I am including Chief Raymond as a candidate for the permanent position of Chief of Police for the City of Shreveport.''

The Shreveport Police Officer's Association responded with an open letter to Perkins.

The letter, from SPOA Vice President Joseph Lewis, expressed discontent with Bowman's inclusion of Raymond.

"When Mayor pro tem Bowman announced that he would add Ben Raymond to the list today, we were appalled,'' the letter read. "We respect the process that you implemented with the advisory team and we feel that if Ben Raymond had achieved what the finalist (sic) had achieved, none of this would be happening right now. We ask that you continue forward with the original three finalist (sic), ACP Wayne Smith, Lt. Tedris Smith and Sgt. Michael Carter.

"If for some reason you have lost faith in the advisory team recommendations, then we respectfully request that you include all seven of the applicants in further reviews, not just Ben Raymond. Please accept this as a formal request on behalf of the Shreveport Police Officers Association.''

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