The Lafayette Police Department has earned a 100-percent clearance rating for solving all of the city's homicides in 2017.

LPD spokesman Cpl. Karl Ratcliff said all 24 homicides that occurred within the city this year have been solved.

This puts the Lafayette Police Department above the projected national average of around 60 percent clearance for homicides, as reported by the FBI's Uniformed Crime Report for 2016.

Of the 24 homicides, all but one were committed with a firearm. To combat the trend of gun violence within Lafayette, Ratcliff said the police department is using the following techniques:

  • personnel restructuring to place more officers on the street, including increasing the personnel assigned to a Special Investigations Unit
  • educating children in our schools on the dangers of firearms through our School Resource Officer program
  • continued partnerships with communities through our Community Relations Committee and scheduled Community Walks and events
  • partnership with local ATF agents on cases involving firearms in our city for federal prosecution
  • increasing the number of officers per shift (we have already requested and will received 10 additional officers for uniformed patrol in 2018)
  • additional personnel and/or overtime details in areas where increases of violent crimes have been observed

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