While the numbers speak for themselves, News 10 sat down with Police Chief Graig LeBlanc to find out how his department plans to keep crime rates low.

OPELOUSAS, La. (KLFY) -- The Opelousas Police Department has officially released their crime statistics to show progress over last year. While the numbers speak for themselves, News 10 sat down with Police Chief Graig LeBlanc to find out how his department plans to keep crime rates low.

Comparing the numbers from 2022 to 2023, the police reported significant decreases in major areas of crime, including a 45% decrease in shootings and a 49% decrease in burglaries.

The department has also seen an increase in arrests and homicides solved.

"It was an accomplishment for the police department," LeBlanc said. "But, I think it was an accomplishment for the citizens as well. We want to continue to strive to do our best for the people, to make them comfortable, to just improve their quality of life."

When asked about how these results are possible, LeBlanc said his department spent extensive time focusing on proper training for officers, grant funding to ensure equipment and technology improvements, and salary increases to boost morale and have officers equip for the job.

"The major changes that we made was with our manpower deployment, we did a staggered deployment to increase the maximum amount of people that we have in our violent areas," LeBlanc said. "We want to make sure that the citizens visibly see the officers in the neighborhoods doing the job. Just to build that confidence between community and police, we want to recruit in quality, not quantity."

But with numbers improving last year, what needs to be done to produce even better results in 2024?

LeBlanc said the biggest goal for the year is to hire more officers that raise the standard for the badge they wear.

"You're trying to recruit from our community guys and girls that was raised in the community," LeBlanc said. "So, they have a sense of value because we put the people first. You get these types of results."

With the department's goal being to see more progress next year, LeBlanc said the first step is getting back to work.

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