Louisiana State Police

The Louisiana State Police (French: Police d’Etat de Louisiane) is the state police agency of Louisiana, which has jurisdiction anywhere in the state, headquartered in Baton Rouge. It falls under the authority of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is officially known in that organization as the Office of State Police.

The Louisiana State Police is a premier law enforcement agency in Louisiana and was accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA) from 2003 to 2008. The agency voluntarily ceased its association with CALEA in 2008.

The organization began in 1922 as the Louisiana Highway Commission with 16 Highway Inspectors covering approximately 2,700 miles (4,300 km) of roadway. These inspectors patrolled exclusively by motorcycles. These motorcycles were personally owned by the individual patrolmen, and maintained by an allowance from the state. Of the 16 men on the force, one was a captain. This captain served as superintendent of the force. The highway commission was divided into ten districts. The Baton Rouge District had two patrol officers, while the New Orleans District had three patrolmen. The other eight districts had one patrol officer each. The other two officers patrolled statewide on the main highways of the state. In 1928 the agency was known as the Law Enforcement Division of the Highway Commission, and employed 70 uniformed officers. The Bureau of Criminal Investigation was also formed about that time. In 1932, the organization's name was changed to the State Highway Patrol, and it was given the authority to carry firearms. The agency was used by Governor Huey Long as his personal bodyguards, who escorted him across the state. In 1936, the two divisions of law enforcement were combined, by an act of the Louisiana Legislature, to form the Louisiana Department of State Police. The department's force of patrolmen numbered over 40 at that time, and the primary patrol vehicle was the motorcycle. In 1939, the State Police was divided into eight "troops". Troopers in cars and motorcycles were patrolling nearly 2 million miles per year throughout the state. The agency's fleet of patrol motorcycles eventually grew to 64 motorcycles. In 1942 the Louisiana Legislature abolished the Department of State Police and made it a division of the newly created Department of Public Safety. The state police accepted new responsibilities in 1946, when the state's Drivers License Law was enacted requiring every driver to hold a license for operating a motor vehicle. Prior to this time, only the operators of commercial vehicles, trucks, and buses were required to be licensed in Louisiana. In 1948, the number of motorcycles operated by the agency had fallen to 36 motorcycles. The department was relying more heavily on automobiles for patrol purposes, and eventually patrol motorcycles were only found in New Orleans and other major cities. Motorcycle patrol units were used throughout the 1950s, with Governor Earl Kemp Long also using them as bodyguards. In the 1960s, the department was utilizing motorcycles, automobiles, airplanes, and helicopters for enforcement purposes. The department had exclusively used Harley-Davidson motorcycles until the 1980s when it switched to Kawasaki motorcycles. A short time after this switch, the motorcycle patrol program was disbanded. In 1997, patrol motorcycles were brought back on the force.

In July 2018, Trooper, Kasha Domingue shot a male passenger in the back who was unarmed at a 2018 traffic stop behind a Perkins Road store causing a severe injury to his spinal cord. A grand jury indicted Trooper Kasha Domingue, 43 of Baton Rouge on Thursday, Oct. 1, 2020 on charges of aggravated second-degree battery and illegal use of a weapon in the shooting of Clifton Dilley, a Baton Rouge man who was 19 at the time. The indictment marked the first time in District Attorney Hillar Moore III's 11-plus years as prosecutor that an officer was charged with a crime after killing or injuring a civilian with gunfire.

In September 2018, the Louisiana State Police were scrutinized for using lists of personal information about supposed Antifa members which were posted on 8chan's politics board. The file "antifa.docx" was found in police databases and led directly to the opening of criminal investigations.

In 2019 a Louisiana State Police unit stunned, punched, dragged and ultimately killed Ronald Greene, a Black motorist who had failed to pull over for an unspecified traffic violation. A federal civil rights investigation was conducted and the state set up a panel to investigate several incidents of misconduct, including filing of false reports. In 2021, the ACLU called for a federal investigation into the Louisiana State Police. State Police brass initially argued the troopers’ use of force was justified — “awful but lawful,” as ranking officials described it — and did not open an administrative investigation until 474 days after Greene's death. Police body camera footage had surfaced and there was evidence that Green likely did not die as a result of a crash, following a high speed chase, as Green's family had been told. The FBI opened an investigation

On June 9, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section opened a joint investigation with the U.S. Attorney's Offices for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of Louisiana, against the State of Louisiana and the Louisiana State Police. The investigation is separate from any federal criminal investigation, as a Pattern-or-Practice investigation, also referred to as "Pattern or Practice of conduct", or Pattern or Practice of Discrimination under the authority of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, pursuant to 42 U.S.C.§ 14141, since migrated to 34 U.S.C. § 12601.

A Union Parish grand jury indicted four Louisiana State Police (LSP) troopers and one Union Parish deputy, with charges ranging from negligent homicide, malfeasance in office, and obstruction of justice. Trooper Chris Hollingsworth died in a car crash in September 2020, according to the Ouachita Parish Coroner's Office. Governor Jeff Landry has promised sweeping reforms. He tapped Major Robert Hodges (28 year LSP veteran) as the new LSP superintendent per recommendations of his criminal justice advisory council. Liz Murrill, newly appointed as Attorney General, intends to hire former federal prosecutor Ed O’Callaghan to perform an internal study of the Louisiana State Police. A goal to "...assist in restoring the rule of law to this city and provide victims the justice they deserve", according to Governor Landry.