It was a really good idea that the organizers behind the city of St. George had. But if the Powers That Be in Baton Rouge get their way, St. George is going to need to shift on the fly and they’ll probably need a little bigger government than they were hoping for.

The plan has been that St. George would hire somebody to serve as “police chief.” as all incorporated cities in Louisiana are required by law to employ someone in that job, but simply contract with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement. This entails zero changes as far as a citizen user experience; the area which is now St. George was previously unincorporated and as such it has always been under the chief law enforcement jurisdiction of EBRSO. The St. George organizers were simply planning to throw a little more money at the Sheriff’s office in return for some extra officers on patrol.

But a group called the SafeBR coalition, whose website contains lots of nice people but also all of the same in-crowd types under whose stewardship Baton Rouge has embarked on an accelerating decline which made St. George a desirable incorporation in the first place, has designs on dragging EBRSO into the same muck that the Baton Rouge Police Department has foundered in. SafeBR wants to merge the two.

The SafeBR coalition asked experts to study ways to improve public safety in Baton Rouge. They suggested changes in law enforcement. These include improving pay, filling patrol positions and using resources more efficiently.

The study found Baton Rouge’s police force has too much in-department leadership compared to patrol officers.

The study also found that if the city spent on law enforcement like the national average, it could save over $50 million. That money could pay officers better, hire more patrol officers and invest in useful technology.

The study found that cities saved about 20% by merging their police forces. Baton Rouge could save money and serve the community better by following its example.

The study said using best practices from both the Baton Rouge Police Department and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office could improve accountability, community relations and teamwork.

According to the study, cities like Charlotte and Jacksonville, which have gone through this process, said a careful, step-by-step approach is crucial for success.

You can see with absolute clarity how that’s going to go down.

BRPD is rolled into EBRSO, and now the mayor-president – there’s an election going on for that job, and it’s possible Sid Edwards could pull off an upset, but the chalk would say you’re going to have a left-wing Democrat mayor-president who likes criminals more than law-abiding people – is going to be all up in the sheriff’s business.

Currently, EBRSO doesn’t patrol the city of Baton Rouge. It handles the parts of East Baton Rouge Parish which are outside the boundaries of the city proper.

And most people will tell you that the sheriff’s office is a whole lot better at preventing and solving crime than BRPD is. Sheriff’s officers are also more courteous and professional. There is certainly far better morale at EBRSO.

And East Baton Rouge sheriff Sid Gautreaux is generally recognized as a solid, competent leader of his department. Nobody thinks BRPD’s leadership is great.

All of which is good stuff, but remember – the sheriff’s office handles law enforcement mostly in parts of town where there aren’t a lot of gang-infested high-crime areas. Gardere, which remains unincorporated because the final incorporation map of St. George didn’t include it, is really the only truly bad neighborhood under EBRSO’s jurisdiction.

Merge EBRSO and BRPD, and now the sheriff’s office has everything.

And the next Alton Sterling case that comes up, even if it isn’t deadly like the Sterling case was, will be on EBRSO.

The same people – like for example state representative Denise Marcelle, who’s a member of SafeBR – who tried to destroy the BRPD over the Sterling case will now go after the sheriff’s department. And they’ll notice that Sid Gautreaux is a white Republican, which means they’ll play the race card. Now EBRSO will be a racist outfit stinking of police brutality and it’ll need to be “reformed.” Maybe there’s a lawsuit in front of an Obama judge at the federal court in the Middle District of Louisiana – Shelley Dick, let’s say – and now you’re looking at a consent decree being forced down EBRSO’s throat requiring the same kind of hug-a-thug policing which has turned New Orleans into a shooting gallery.

Or if that stuff doesn’t actually happen, there will be threats and demands made that it does. Because that’s how the race card is played to render police departments inoperable.

It won’t be really about race. It generally isn’t. It’s about power. The Denise Marcelles of the world want power more than anything else, and if the sheriff’s department is going to be patrolling black neighborhoods in Baton Rouge under this new plan, then it will now be important who has power over the sheriff’s department.

And in four years or so, you’re going to have somebody who Denise Marcelle likes running against Gautreaux, probably with the backing of one of those Soros-affiliated pro-criminal PAC’s or NGO’s at a level no locally-funded candidate, even one who’s an incumbent, could possibly match.

And that’s how the Left would capture the sheriff’s office.

Sure, it might save money to merge those two police forces, but what you’re creating is an organization which is super-attractive to the Soros blob as it looks for vehicles to “fundamentally transform” America. EBRSO might swallow BRPD, but it would become BRPD – or worse.

You can see this happening with crystal clarity. It’s all but inevitable.

And when it does, the only way St. George will be able to get competent, effective law enforcement is if it handles the job itself.

The good news is that current projections show St. George running a very large surplus based on current tax rates and economic activity. The new city will be able to afford a great police force.

But it’ll need one.

Maybe the SafeBR people mean well. But what they’ll produce with their grand plan will be disastrous.