BATON ROUGE - As the new mayor-president is getting settled into the role, Sid Edwards is bringing on new hires like retired Baton Rouge Police Chief Jeff LeDuff as Assistant Chief Administrative Officer.

The announcement came Friday morning. In Sid Edwards’s first address as Mayor-President, he said he’s looking to address crime head-on.

“Instead of accepting crime as a problem we must live with, we must change that mindset,” Edwards said.

LeDuff is no stranger to fighting crime in the capital city, he retired from the department in 2010. Since then he’s worked for a private safety consulting firm.

"I was told a long time ago, if you want to know what's going to happen in the future, look at what we've done in the past,” LeDuff said. “We plan to look at and reexamine some of the programs from Operation Ceasefire that worked.”

During his time as Chief, LeDuff says the homicide rate one year was as low as 47. Comparing that number to the 2024 statistic of 84, LeDuff says his focus is public safety.

"While they're busy fighting crime, we're going to be trying to discover ways to help them and help them in the fire service, get ready for storms next year," LeDuff said. "It's a lot of responsibilities. It's a lot of duties."