Editing Louisiana (section)

===Law enforcement===
{{See also|List of law enforcement agencies in Louisiana}}
Louisiana's statewide police force is the [[Louisiana State Police]]. In 1988, the Criminal Investigation Bureau was reorganized.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lsp.org/about_hist.html |title=Louisiana State Police—About Us—LSP History |publisher=Lsp.org |access-date=April 23, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140504001036/http://www.lsp.org/about_hist.html |archive-date=May 4, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Its troopers have statewide jurisdiction with power to enforce all laws of the state, including city and parish ordinances. Each year, they patrol over {{convert|12|e6mi|e6km|abbr=off}} of roadway and arrest about 10,000 impaired drivers. The State Police are primarily a traffic enforcement agency, with other sections that delve into trucking safety, narcotics enforcement, and gaming oversight.
[[File:Spanish Town Mardi Gras 2015 - 15922509443.jpg|thumb|Mardi Gras celebrations in the Spanish Town section of Baton Rouge]]

The elected sheriff in each parish is its chief law enforcement officer. They are the keepers of the local parish prisons, which house felony and misdemeanor prisoners. They are the primary criminal patrol and first responder agency in all matters criminal and civil. They are also the official tax collectors in each parish. The sheriffs are responsible for general law enforcement in their respective parishes, with the exception of Orleans Parish where this falls to the New Orleans Police Department. Before 2010, Orleans Parish was the only parish to have two sheriff's offices, with a different elected sheriff overseeing civil and criminal matters. In 2006, a bill was passed which eventually consolidated the two sheriff's departments into one parish sheriff responsible for both.<ref>{{cite web|title=Louisiana Laws – Louisiana State Legislature|url=http://legis.la.gov/Legis/LawPrint.aspx?d=763316|access-date=December 23, 2020|website=legis.la.gov|archive-date=March 10, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310103305/http://legis.la.gov/Legis/LawPrint.aspx?d=763316|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2015, Louisiana had a higher murder rate (10.3 per 100,000) than any other state in the country for the 27th straight year. Louisiana is the only state with an annual average murder rate (13.6 per 100,000) at least twice as high as the U.S. annual average (6.6 per 100,000) during that period, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics from FBI Uniform Crime Reports. In a different kind of criminal activity, the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' reports that Louisiana is the most corrupt state in the United States.<ref>{{cite news|last=Witt|first=Howard|title=Most corrupt state: Louisiana ranked higher than Illinois|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-corruption-louisiana_wittmar27,0,2957672.story|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=March 27, 2009|access-date=June 2, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120602125255/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-corruption-louisiana_wittmar27,0,2957672.story|archive-date=June 2, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to a 2012 article in ''[[Times Picayune|The Times Picayune]]'', Louisiana is the prison capital of the world. Many [[Private prison|for-profit]] private prisons and sheriff-owned prisons have been built and operate here. Louisiana's incarceration rate is nearly five times Iran's, 13 times China's and 20 times Germany's. Minorities are incarcerated at rates disproportionate to their share of the state's population.<ref>{{cite web |author=Cindy Chang |website=The Times-Picayune |url=http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/05/louisiana_is_the_worlds_prison.html |title=Louisiana is the world's prison capital |date=May 13, 2012 |publisher=Nola.com |access-date=April 23, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150303130905/http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2012/05/louisiana_is_the_worlds_prison.html |archive-date=March 3, 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> There are more people serving life sentences without parole in Louisiana than in Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi combined.<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 4, 2023 |title=The Scandal That Never Happened |last= Rubin |first= Anat |url=https://www.propublica.org/article/louisiana-judges-ignored-prisoners-petitions-without-review-fifth-circuit |access-date=November 23, 2023 |website=[[ProPublica]] |archive-date=November 22, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231122175457/https://www.propublica.org/article/louisiana-judges-ignored-prisoners-petitions-without-review-fifth-circuit |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[New Orleans Police Department]] began a [[Sanctuary city|sanctuary policy]] to "no longer cooperate with federal immigration enforcement" beginning on February 28, 2016.<ref>Robert McClendon, [http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/03/sanctuary_city_immigration_new.html 'Sanctuary city' policy puts an end to NOPD's immigration enforcement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107143900/https://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/03/sanctuary_city_immigration_new.html |date=November 7, 2018 }}, ''NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune'' (March 1, 2016).</ref>

On June 19, 2024, [[Jeff Landry]] signed a bill to officially require that the [[Ten Commandments]] be displayed in every classroom in public schools and colleges.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/louisiana-ten-commandments-displayed-classrooms-571a2447906f7bbd5a166d53db005a62|title=New law requires all Louisiana public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments|date=June 19, 2024|website=AP News}}</ref> In November 2024, the law was overturned by a federal court.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-11-12 |title=Federal judge blocks Louisiana Ten Commandments law |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd6vxqe14nwo |access-date=2025-04-22 |website=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>