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Average life expectancy lower in East Baton Rouge Report: Five categories of premature death are uniquely prevalent in the capital region
BY HALEY MILLER | Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS By MICHAEL JOHNSON
A fleet management technician tightens a bolt on an alternator while making repairs to a police unit in the Baton Rouge Police Department’s main garage.
BRPD vehicles are put through the wringer
City maintains fleet that drives millions of miles each year
The average American can expect to live about 78 years. But in East Baton Rouge Parish, that number is significantly lower, with residents reaching 73 or 74 on average. The shorter life expectancy is due to five categories of premature death that are uniquely prevalent in the Capital Region, according to a new report from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation. “We wanted to kind of awaken the community to where we are not the norm,” BRAF CEO Chris Meyer said. “You do not have to exist in this plane. It is possible to be better. And we’ve got to have a common narrative and strategy for it.” The report found that premature deaths from cardiovascular disease, accidents, homicide and kidney disease, along with infant deaths, are more common in Baton Rouge, in some cases four times the national average. Cancer is also a leading cause of early death in the parish, but at a rate similar to other communities across the country.
ä See LIFE, page 4A
BY QUINN COFFMAN | Staff writer Hundreds of police cars patrol millions of miles on Baton Rouge’s streets each year. They divert traffic, hold arrestees, carry officers to emergencies, operate as mobile offices and spend nearly as much time with the engine running as they do with it off. A police car, or unit or cruiser, is an officer’s most expensive piece of equipment, and the Baton Rouge Police Department already has limited certain purchases in the face of a $9 million budget deficit. So what goes into purchasing, modifying, maintaining and eventually auctioning these vehicles? What is the life span of a police officer’s car? The rebirth of the department’s current fleet of law enforcement vehicles began nine years ago, after the demise of nearly 200 of its vehicles in the waters of Baton Rouge’s 2016 flood. “I’ll go all the way back to when we started having real issues,” said Deputy Chief Neal Noel. “With the flood, we lost a third of our entire fleet. When I say a third, that’s probably like 190 units, maybe more.” Some were flooded while parked at an officer’s home; others were lost during rescues. The losses created a shortfall that the department is still trying to fill. “If this was pre-2016, we were replacing our marked police car fleet every four to five years,” Noel said. “Because of the loss, we were unable to continue
N.O. lizards carry record lead levels Study finds concentrations that would kill humans
BY EMILY WOODRUFF | Staff writer
Baton Rouge Police Department cruisers and other fleet vehicles line different service bays inside the main shop in Baton Rouge. that scheduled rotation, because we were playing catch-up. We’re still playing catch-up.” Departments across Louisiana look each year at which car manufacturers have contracts with the state to accept orders of police vehicles. These vehicles are considered “pursuit-rated” or “police-package-rated” and can’t be purchased by civilian consumers. They are Chevrolet Tahoes and Silverados, Ford F-150s and Interceptors,
Dodge Chargers and Durangos, each outfitted with heavier suspension, upgraded brake pads and rotors, highercapacity batteries and larger coolant reserves than their consumer counterparts. “We have to look at the state contract to see what’s out there. And oftentimes, because the manufacturers only build so many, if you’re not ready and waiting when that door opens, you could miss an
ä See BRPD, page 4A
The brown lizards scampering on New Orleans porches and sunning themselves on sidewalks should be dead by any other standard. That’s because the Cuban brown anoles live with the highest blood lead levels ever documented in a vertebrate, according to a Tulane University study published this month. Despite lead concentrations that would kill humans and other animals, the reptiles thrive, darting across fences and blending into the city’s leafy yards. What started out as an effort to assess the impact on animals of high levels of lead in New Orleans took a turn when the scientists discovered just how high the levels are, shocking the researchers
ä See LIZARDS, page 5A
Many displaced by Katrina have created new lives in different cities BY JOHN SIMERMAN | Staff writer
over, you’ll be strong,” his grandmother prodded. Smith, then 24, Cash Smith was thin on prospects boarded a plane with his two kids and stranded inside the Astrodome and other Hurricane Katrina evacwhen a voice wafted over the PA uees, bound for the Rockies on a system, about an offer: Free seats promise. on a flight to Denver, a place to live The support was real. His pregwhen you get there, help landing nant wife, diverted by bus to Dala job. las, would soon join them. A self“You’re young, you can start described “menace to society”
WEATHER HIGH 95 LOW 71 PAGE 12A
back in New Orleans, Smith got a job at a Colorado university and earned his GED. Family came, moving onto the same Denver street. But the marriage soon frayed, he said. Relatives decamped for Texas, including his wife and kids. In Colorado, something was missing. “They wanted that down-South
atmosphere back,” said Smith, who would soon follow his family to Houston in 2010. Smith was among the last to remain in Denver from dozens of Hurricane Katrina evacuees who had accepted the same invitation for a fresh start. All of them ultimately left, the Colorado organizers said, usually for warmer
Classified .....................6C Deaths .........................9A Nation-World................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3C-5C Living............................1C Opinion .....................10A Commentary .............11A Metro ...........................8A Sports ..........................1B
climes in Louisiana or nearby metro areas, a pattern familiar to those who have studied a diaspora that scattered some 450,000 New Orleans residents across all 50 states. Turns out, Katrina migration was far from static or linear.
ä See DISPLACED, page 6A
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