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Denham Springs Police, federal authorities investigating threatening emails sent to city council members
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DENHAM SPRINGS — The Denham Springs Police Department is investigating a series of threatening emails sent to several members of the Denham Springs City Council.
The Denham Springs Police Department confirmed the investigation on Friday.
According to the department, officers were dispatched to Denham Springs City Hall on Sept. 2 after a city employee received a threatening email. Officers said the email, sent from an unknown address, threatened the employee's job after the inauguration of the city's new mayor. During the investigation, officers learned another city official had received similar messages from the same address.
The Denham Springs Police Department is actively investigating the incident alongside federal authorities because the emails originated from an offshore server outside the United States.
While federal authorities are involved, WBRZ political analyst James Hartman noted after reviewing some of the communications that the language may not meet Louisiana’s legal definition of a physical threat, though it does reflect a broader, troubling shift in public discourse.
"In this case, what I've read of the emails, it's actually a stretch to call them threats," Hartman said. "They might be political threats, but they're not legit threats under Louisiana law,” he said.
Even so, Hartman emphasized that the involvement of law enforcement and federal agencies underscores the need for heightened public awareness around rising hostility directed at local officials.
According to research cited by Hartman and data from the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, threats against public officials at all levels, including law enforcement, judges, federal officers, and municipal leaders, have climbed significantly.
Federal charges involving threats against public officials rose from an average of 38 per year between 2013 and 2016 to an average of 62 per year between 2017 and 2022, a trajectory that has continued to climb in recent years. Organizations dedicated to supporting civil servants say the impact of this trend is already taking a toll on government operations.
Isabella Ulloa, founder and CEO of the Public Service Alliance, said hostility and threats against public servants have been escalating for over a decade, affecting officials across every state, particularly local leaders who lack security details.
"These threats have a pretty significant chilling effect on people's willingness to serve," Ulloa said. "So you see people resigning, you see people choosing not to run for office, choosing not to engage in certain issues that might be controversial because they are afraid of what might happen,” she said.
The incident in Denham Springs comes amid a broader pattern of security disruptions at government offices across the region and country. Just last week, the Louisiana Secretary of State's office in Baton Rouge was evacuated after staff discovered an envelope containing a suspicious white powder.
While subsequent hazard testing determined the substance was non-harmful, similar scare tactics have targeted election and municipal offices nationwide.
"In recent weeks, we've seen election agencies around the country receive suspicious packages containing a white powder," Hartman said. "It's been deemed to be not a threat, but nobody's released what the powder actually is. So that's certainly a concern because that's not a prank, even if people think it is," she said.
The Denham Springs Police Department says its investigation into the council emails remains ongoing. WBRZ has reached out to city officials for additional comment.
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