BAKER, La. (BRPROUD) – As we head toward the Louisiana primary, the City of Baker has several key races this election season, including the Chief of Police.

“I’ve always been a person of the public and I’ve been a police officer for 41 years years now. So that’s my life,” said Chief Carl K. Dunn, Baker Police Department.

“I’ve been in law enforcement now going into my 19th year,” said Willie Brooks III, Candidate for Police Chief.

In the race this year are two candidates. Incumbent Chief Carl K. Dunn and Willie Brooks III.

Brooks, a family man who recently retired from the East Feliciana Sheriff’s Office says his dedication to improving his community by going door-to-door makes him the perfect candidate.

“So I’ve been having a lot of fun because it allows me to meet people and then I can share with them about my ‘Books Keep Me Safe’,” said Brooks.

Some of those books include his human trafficking programs.

“We want to be the first agency to have a human trafficking division because a lot of cases that we hear may not be just a runaway. It could be a child caught up in human trafficking,” said Brooks.

Brooks says he’s five months away from graduating with a Master’s degree in criminal justice. He wants to use his education to better understand the minds of criminals.

“Police officers now need to be trained on how to deal with people with mental health issues, because some people may not need to go to jail, some people may need some rehabilitation,” said Brooks.

The 2023 Louisiana DARE Officer of the Year says having a male figure and active police presence in neighborhoods is directly linked to lower crime rates.

“A child’s perception of a police officer shouldn’t be that. This is a man in uniform, a woman in uniform that just arrests, but that like myself, especially doing a summer when I’m patrolling, I’m out playing basketball in uniform,” said Brooks.

Chief Dunn on the other hand, spent most of his career patrolling the toughest streets in Baton Rouge before taking over the Baker Police Department.

“Right now, we were ranked the safest city in the state of Louisiana. We received a ranking in April of 2023. It took work to get here,” said Dunn.

Much like Brooks, Chief Dunn says building strong relationships with parents and kids, builds trust between officers and families. Something Dunn hopes will make Baker a safer place to live.

“I’m big on community policing, true community policing. I am big on serving the seniors. There are a lot of parents that can use some more support. I think that we can support, especially single parents that are trying to manage in household work 12 to 16 hours a day and still keep rains on juveniles,” said Dunn.

When Dunn’s uniform comes off, his duty to help children doesn’t end there. Every Tuesday and Thursday, the chief cooks a hot meal for students while teaching them reading skills to improve literacy rates for elementary kids.

“We accept the children that were four grades behind. And I watched your children grow and I watched their confidence level shoot to the moon. When it comes to just learning, the simple thing is learning how to read. When you learn how to read. You can become more prepared, more engaged, and more involved and feel like you actually belong in that classroom,” said Dunn.

Although there’s a nationwide shortage of officers, both candidates believe being approachable and seen on the streets will lead to mutual respect between the people and the law.

“To actually be able to let these officers realize how easy this job can be by just being a good professional guy, trusting obviously in the community, and let those communities show you how much they can trust in you and how much they can support you. And I enjoyed it,” said Dunn.

“Win or lose, they’re going to always see Willie Brooks because it’s all about keeping them safe,” said Brooks.

Election Day is Saturday, March 23.

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