It’s National Police Week and according to the personal finance website WalletHub, Louisiana is ranked the worst state for police officers in 2019. The Bayou State has the 47th highest crime rate and WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzales says the high violent crime rate may be the reason Louisiana ranks 50th in police deaths.

“We have seen more police deaths and more persons killed by police per capita, and a higher share of officers assaulted.”

Louisiana has no required de-escalation training and Gonzalez says that is an issue for officer safety.

“It really teaches officers to slow down, create space, and use communication techniques to hopefully diffuse a potentially dangerous situation. Those things at a policy level really lower the number of police deaths.”

Gonzales says Louisiana falls well below the average in officer income ranking 49th.

“There is across the country around a 63,000 dollar mean annual wage that is higher than most other occupations, but in Louisiana that number is more like 54,000.”

To see the full report:

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