lsu manship school news service

Year-end figures show that Louisiana cities saw the same record surge in homicides in 2021 as many cities in other states, marking a second straight year of rising murder rates. And as the killings have increased, police departments have been struggling to keep up, and the clearance rate — the percentage of cases being solved — has declined in several cities.

BATON ROUGE -- A measure that could free up several hundred million dollars in state spending that is set by law and cannot be adjusted in the annual…