Police chief candidate gives interview after gag order is lifted

Sara MacNeil
Shreveport Times

In 2009, a crowd of nearly 100 people watched a man who tried to break up a fight get shot and killed in broad daylight in the Stoner Hill Neighborhood.

Police were called for shots fired and crowd control. Witnesses were uncooperative when police arrived.

“About a hundred people around and nobody saw anything. Why is that?” said Jason Frazier, a Shreveport Police Department corporal who is one of eight candidates for police chief.

Jason Frazier is a corporal officer who is a candidate for police chief.

The man who killed the 19-year-old that day is currently incarcerated for second-degree murder. Frazier said the shooter would have never been held accountable if Frazier didn’t have previous interactions with a witness who eventually cooperated in the homicide investigation.

Frazier, 44, used the story as an example of similar incidents that take place a decade later. Citizens witness heinous crimes but don’t want to be involved because they’re afraid and don’t think they’ll be protected by the police department. He said it’s one contributor to an overload of cases in SPD’s investigative unit.

Frazier talked to The Shreveport Times Wednesday after he received permission from Interim Chief Ben Raymond.

Eight candidates for police chief were approved March 28. Officers Michael Carter, Marcus Mitchell, Wayne Smith and Kevin Strickland spoke with The Times about their candidacy earlier this month. 

The chairman of the Fire and Police Civil Service Board called a special meeting asking for immediate removal of the provisional police chief of the Shreveport Police Department citing abuse of power as the reason. The chairman, Michael Carter, is also a sergeant at SPD and the provisional police chief, Ben Raymond, put in a transfer for Carter after Carter criticized the hierarchical structure of the police department to The Shreveport Times. Carter said Raymond's order that Carter be transferred from patrol to human resources, was retaliation.

Frazier’s request to provide an interview was initially denied. Raymond, who is also a candidate for police chief, sent an e-mail denying all candidate requests to talk to the media. Janice Dailey and Frazier were the only officers who followed the initial gag order.  

Michael Carter said he took Raymond’s order to the Civil Service Board and the conflict turned into an argument about transparency.

“You’re a public servant and you’re evading the media? You’re a high-paid public servant, but you’re still a public servant,” Carter said. “I’m not scared of the media. I know as a public servant you have to answer hard questions.”

Raymond eventually reversed the order and granted candidates permission to provide interviews.

That situation is not the first time Carter and Raymond had problems related to comments in the media. March 19, Carter and Raymond were in front of the Civil Service Board arguing about Raymond transferring Carter to human resources. Carter said the transfer was retaliatory. He said Raymond ordered the transfer after Carter was quoted in a Shreveport Times article criticizing the police department.

Raymond denied the allegations and the Civil Service Board upheld the transfer. Carter then took his claim to district court. Raymond rescinded Carter’s transfer to human resources and instead transferred him to Planning and Research.

There are eight candidates for the Shreveport police chief position.

Frazier reached out to The Times once the order not to speak with the media was lifted. Points of interest in Frazier’s interview included a perception that seems to differ from that of other officials and officers.

Frazier said there are more officers on the street now than there has ever been in the 15 years he’s worked for SPD. Despite others arguing officers are leaving, he’s not sold on adding more patrol officer shifts. He thinks an increase could be heavy surveillance, totalitarian and a violation of citizens’ rights.

“We’re not the Gestapo. We’re not out there listening to folks and having snitches out there. That’s not what policing is,” Frazier said.

In addition to drawing comparisons between the secret police of Nazi Germany in the 1930’s, adding more patrol officers would mean employing more supervisors, Frazier said. The ratio of supervisors to officers is currently about five officers to one supervisor. He said a better ratio would be four officers to one supervisor in order not to overwhelm supervisors.

Frazier said if he were police chief he would want more input from rookie officers. He said currently younger officers are marginalized and not used to their full potential in the department. Just because officers have been in the department for 30 plus years doesn’t mean they know what’s best for the department, he said.

He also said higher-ranking officers need to be held to the same standard as those who’ve joined the force fresh out of the academy.

“We can’t treat the silver badge any different from the 30-year-veteran,” Frazier said.