In the U.S. state of Louisiana, the most common type of governing body for a parish is the police jury (French: le jury de police). Louisiana is divided into parishes for units of local government, similar to the counties in other states. Initially, all parishes used the police jury system. Many have transitioned to other forms of government, especially after the 1974 state constitution granted the parishes more autonomy. In general, the more rural areas still use this older system.
The police jury is a legislative and executive body. Parishes are divided into wards or districts. These each elect a "juror" to the assembly. The jurors elect a police jury president as their chairman. The president presides over the police jury and serves as the titular head of the parish government. Police juries range in size, depending on population, from three to over fifteen members. Wide latitude is given to organize and administer parish business.
A police jury was called a "police assembly" initially. A law passed on April 6, 1807, created groups to handle the "local police and administration of their parish". [1] Three years later, these were officially defined as "police juries" and given specific roles. [2] The term "jury" comes from the two aspects of the original police juries. They were the same size as grand juries and were presided over by the parish judge. [1]
The police jury system was introduced when the area was the Territory of Orleans. Two years after the Louisiana Purchase, [3] the newly formed legislative council divided the territory into 12 counties. These counties proved unmanageable, and the legislature reverted to using the smaller Catholic parishes, defined in 1762 as "the farthest area that the priest could ride on horseback, within reason, to go to the outlying churches to conduct a mass once a month". [2]
In 1810, the office of sheriff was created for each parish, and the police jury was officially defined one year later. [2] The original format had the parish judge presiding over the police jury, but this was quickly replaced with a police jury president, elected by the jurors from among their members. [4] In 1813, the parishes were subdivided into wards, each electing one juror. [2]
The Territory of Orleans had a different cultural background than other states and no experience with representative government. [3] The juries started with limited powers and an explicit mandate to maintain and regulate infrastructure, alcohol consumption, and slavery. [4] [1] Their role would grow to encompass over fifty government functions. [3] The 1974 State Constitution granted more autonomy to cities and parishes. This shifted from delegated authority where parishes could only do what was explicitly permitted, to "home rule" where the local government could do anything not explicitly prohibited. [5] Many parishes chose to transition away and drafted home rule charters, defining the structure, powers, and limits of their local government. [5]
In Louisiana, the level of government between the city and state is the parish, comparable to the counties used by other US states. [3] The police jury handles the executive and legislative functions of the parish government. The parishes are divided into wards or districts. These each elect a "juror" to the assembly. [5] The assembly's size varies depending on the population, from three members in some rural parishes to over fifteen. The jurors elect a "police jury president" from among their members. [4] Like other elections in Louisiana, parish elections typically occur in odd-numbered years and use the open primary system. [4]
While originally narrow in scope and only holding powers delegated by the state, modern police juries have broad authority to take actions approved by the voters. According to the Police Jury Association of Louisiana, responsibilities include road maintenance, construction of prisons, waste disposal, bridge construction, fire protection, maintaining the courts plus other parish offices, promoting tourism, and regulating local businesses. They can also create ordinances and enforce them via fines in civil court. [4] To receive state funding, police juries are required to assign road maintenance to a centralized program to prevent conflicts of interest. [5] Police juries also administer state and federal programs at the local level. [3]
The police jury is the most common form of parish government in Louisiana. [6] Many parishes, especially those with large municipalities and suburban areas, have converted away from the system, although some parishes with large cities still use the police jury, including Bossier (Bossier City), Calcasieu (Lake Charles), Ouachita (Monroe) and Rapides (Alexandria). [4]
Twenty-six Louisiana parishes are governed by home rule charters that allow them to pick a different form of government. [6] These include council-president, council-manager, and consolidated parish/city. [4] Under a council-president system, voters elect an executive president and a legislative council separately. With the council-manager system, voters elect a parish council, which hires a professional manager to run the day-to-day government. A consolidated government combines the parish with the local city government, and voters typically elect a separate council and executive. [5] For example, since 1949 the state's capital city and its containing parish have used a consolidated government headed by a mayor-president. [7] [8]
Parish | Type of government |
---|---|
Acadia | police jury |
Allen | police jury |
Assumption | police jury |
Avoyelles | police jury |
Beauregard | police jury |
Bienville | police jury |
Bossier | police jury |
Calcasieu | police jury |
Caldwell | police jury |
Cameron | police jury |
Catahoula | police jury |
Claiborne | police jury |
Concordia | police jury |
DeSoto | police jury |
East Carroll | police jury |
East Feliciana | police jury |
Evangeline | police jury |
Franklin | police jury |
Grant | police jury |
Jackson | police jury |
Jefferson Davis | police jury |
La Salle | police jury |
Lincoln | police jury |
Madison | police jury |
Morehouse | police jury |
Ouachita | police jury |
Rapides | police jury |
Red River | police jury |
Richland | police jury |
Sabine | police jury |
St. Helena | police jury |
Tensas | police jury |
Union | police jury |
Vermillion | police jury |
Vernon | police jury |
Webster | police jury |
West Carroll | police jury |
Winn | police jury |
Ascension | council-president |
Iberia | council-president |
Iberville | council-president |
Jefferson | council-president |
Lafourche | council-president |
Livingston | council-president |
Natchitoches | council-president |
Plaquemines | council-president |
Pointe Coupee | council-president |
St. Bernard | council-president |
St. Charles | council-president |
St. James | council-president |
St. John the Baptist | council-president |
St. Landry | council-president |
St. Martin | council-president |
St. Mary | council-president |
St. Tammany | council-president |
Tangipahoa | council-president |
Washington | council-president |
West Baton Rouge | council-president |
West Feliciana | council-president |
Orleans Parish & New Orleans | consolidated |
East Baton Rouge Parish & Baton Rouge | consolidated |
Lafayette Parish & Lafayette | consolidated |
Terrebonne Parish & Houma | consolidated |
Caddo Parish | council manager |
Louisiana is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 20th in land area and the 25th in population, with roughly 4.6 million residents. Reflecting its French heritage, Louisiana is the only U.S. state with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are equivalent to counties, making it one of only two U.S. states not subdivided into counties. Baton Rouge is the state's capital, and New Orleans, a French Louisiana region, is its largest city with a population of about 383,000 people. Louisiana has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the south; a large part of its eastern boundary is demarcated by the Mississippi River.
Baton Rouge is the capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it had a population of 227,470 as of 2020; it is the seat of Louisiana's most populous parish (county-equivalent), East Baton Rouge Parish, and the center of Louisiana's second-largest metropolitan area and city, Greater Baton Rouge.
Tangipahoa Parish is a parish located on the southeastern border of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 133,157. The parish seat is Amite City, while the largest city is Hammond. Southeastern Louisiana University is located in Hammond. Lake Pontchartrain borders the southeastern side of the parish.
Calcasieu Parish is a parish located on the southwestern border of the U.S. state of Louisiana. As of the 2020 census, the population was 216,785. The parish seat is Lake Charles.
Bossier Parish is a parish located in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Louisiana. At the 2020 census, the population was 128,746.
The Louisiana Constitution is legally named the Constitution of the State of Louisiana and commonly called the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, and the Constitution of 1974. The constitution is the cornerstone of the law of Louisiana ensuring the rights of individuals, describing the distribution and power of state officials and local government, establishes the state and city civil service systems, creates and defines the operation of a state lottery, and the manner of revising the constitution.
Melvin Lee "Kip" Holden, is an American politician who served from 2005 to 2016 as the Democratic Mayor-President of Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. The parish includes the state capital of Baton Rouge and smaller suburban cities such as Baker, Central City, and Zachary.
Leander Henry Perez Sr. was an American Democratic Party political boss of Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes in southeastern Louisiana during the middle third of the 20th century. Officially, he served as a district judge, later as district attorney, and as president of the Plaquemines Parish Commission Council. He was known for leading efforts to enforce and preserve segregation.
The politics of Louisiana involve political parties, laws and the state constitution, and the many other groups that influence the governance of the state. The state was a one-party Deep South state dominated by the Democratic Party from the end of Reconstruction to the 1960s, forming the backbone of the "Solid South." This was due to the near-total disenfranchisement of the state's large African-American population during this time, who mostly voted Republican. The Civil Rights era turned the state into a competitive one on the federal level, as it voted for the nationwide winner in every election between 1972 and 2004. It remained Democratic on the state and local level until the turn of the 21st century, allowing Republicans to win control of the state legislature and every statewide office in 2011. Republicans won a United States Senate seat for Louisiana in the election of 2004, for the first time since 1876. Republicans captured both seats in the election of 2014 for the first time since 1872. In the election of 2008, the state voted for a losing presidential candidate for the first time since 1968. Democrats won less than 40% of the presidential popular vote in the state in the elections of 2016 and 2020.
The Louisiana State Police is the state police agency of Louisiana, which has jurisdiction anywhere in the state, headquartered in Baton Rouge. It falls under the authority of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is officially known in that organization as the Office of State Police.
Sharon Weston Broome is the mayor-president of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She served in the Louisiana State Senate representing the 15th district from 2005 to 2016. She was elected mayor-president in a runoff election held on December 10, 2016. Broome is the first African-American woman to serve as mayor-president.
William Harold Nungesser is an American politician serving as the 54th lieutenant governor of Louisiana since 2016. A member of the Republican Party, Nungesser is also the former president of the Plaquemines Parish Commission, having been re-elected to a second four-year term in the 2010 general election in which he topped two opponents with more than 71 percent of the vote. His second term as parish president began on January 1, 2011, and ended four years later.
The foundation of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, dates to 1721, at the site of a bâton rouge or "red stick" Muscogee boundary marker. It became the state capital of Louisiana in 1849.
Louisiana Highway 72 (LA 72) is a state highway located in Bossier City, Louisiana. It runs 2.49 miles (4.01 km) in an east–west direction from the intersection of Barksdale Boulevard and Hamilton Road to a junction with the concurrent U.S. Highways 79 and 80.
The 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in Louisiana were held on November 3, 2020, to elect the six U.S. representatives from the state of Louisiana, one from each of the state's six congressional districts. The elections coincided with other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate, and various state and local elections.
St. George is the newest incorporated city in Louisiana. It was approved in a ballot initiative on October 12, 2019. Upon incorporation, it became the fifth largest city in Louisiana and the second largest in East Baton Rouge Parish with a population of 86,316. The city originated from a previously unincorporated area of East Baton Rouge Parish located southeast of the City of Baton Rouge.