TJ Morse meets in the WBRZ studio to talk about Hurricane Francine | Tracking Francine

re thank you for that and just as we've been hearing all afternoon from uh Emma Cade and Dr Josh and Malcolm as well once uh Francine makes landfall there then that storm will Trek North and you know they're already experiencing the winds from that not really feeling the impact here in the bad J that's we have the police chief DJ moris here with us what has been the preparation like for the police department yeah so we've been preparing um since early this week since we started seeing the shift Eastward towards Louisiana um the mayor has gotten invited together everybody that works in City Parish government we have MP stood up which is our mayor's office of Homeland Security emergency preparedness for the police side we also have our own incident command stood up at Police Headquarters um we've adjusted people's hours our officers are working extra hours more overlap time all those officers that are in specialized divisions like detectives other places showed up in uniform today they're out on the streets to be able to go into help uniform U be able to block streets in case we have down trees or flooding help direct traffic and we're just going to stand by to see where the power outages might be to be able to shift our resources around can you talk a little bit about high water Vehicles that's one of the things that you've mentioned earlier as well as um I'm just wondering um if you get a call if the the the issue is not as severe here but you get a call from another Parish needing additional help are you guys able to deploy officers to another Parish to help yeah 100% we are um one of the biggest uh metropol Metropolitan police departments in the entire state um baton rdge Police Department so we definitely assist other agencies on a regular basis in a case like this even more so we have a lot more resources and a lot more things we can give with our high water rescue vehicles our boat teams even um scuba teams that are certified in uh Swift waterer rescue so just depending on how bad it gets we can definitely help out other areas as well as our own people what have been some of the calls for service thus far yeah so right now we're just seeing the normal things we're seeing some traffic accidents cuz people are still out on the roads you want to be we're seeing you know just regular typee calls right now um as the stor we're starting to feel some of the presence of the storm what is your biggest concern is this your first hurricane as Chief yeah so it is my first hurricane as Chief I got appointed as Chief um earlier this year in January but I've been with the department for 22 years so definitely been on the department through this I just get to feel it from uh this side now Absol what are your your major concerns the major concerns right now is just uh to see what is going to happen uh we are definitely prepared um there's nothing really big that uh we're worried about we're just where do we need to put our resources we have all these people we have all these things set so now it's just are we worried about flooding are we worried about power outages what are what are we going to need to put the people you mentioned the Staffing uh do you have like a ballpark number I assume they're working in 12-hour shifts yes sir so we got uh our uniform officers they're working extra they normally work 10 hour shifts they're working 12 just to get us some more overlap um detectives are also instead of doing their normal case loads they're out working 10hour shifts to supplement those officers I think we have about 55 um extra detectives working right now we'll have another 45 joining them later tonight when things are getting worse um so we definitely have increased those patrols and those manpowersupply.est don't have to be out on the roads uh to stay off the roads because it if necessary if there's an emergency you guys need to be able to get out as soon as possible you don't need all the unnecessary folks out on the streets that's correct we want to encourage people to stay home one just for their safety it's safer for them to be home because we could have trees coming down or down power lines and then just to make way for our emergency vehicles and we don't want to create more calls for our officers in Fire and AMS get them tied up having to respond to traffic accidents when they need to be going other places um as we get power outages those traffic lights are out treated as a four-way stop if you are out the water looks too high turn around don't try to go drive through any high water you've been in law enforcement a long time obviously we've seen here in Baton rge over many many years when some municipalities have called for a curfew tonight I know that's not the case here in Baton urge but what parameters go into making that decision if that is needed like what what has to happen for for you guys to pull the trigger on a curfew of some sort yeah it's definitely something we want to avoid it's just something we'd have to look at if we're looking at some kind of prolonged um power outages um where safety you know and security alarms are down for businesses or people are having to evacuate so they're not there to stay at home and watch over their homes all those kind of things would go into that decision it's definitely not something we're looking at right now um something we would have to evaluate in the future all right I think that covers it for now uh any else you'd like to pass along to our no thank you all very much for having me um what I'm looking forward to most he's asked me about my concern what I'm looking forward to most is just seeing after this is over with we always see the community coming together neighbors helping neighbors and BGE Police Department is going to be right there alongside of our community helping them whatever we need to do whatever assistance we need to give we're going to be right there along with them all right Chief thank you for what you're do thank youall very much thanks very much