WBRZ - Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE - East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore welcomed a team from Wisconsin to explain how they have managed to decrease their homicide rate by 50 percent in crime-ridden areas.

Investigators from all local agencies listened as Dr. Mallory O'Brien explained how their system works.

The Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission is made up of officials from dozens of agencies in Wisconsin. Their main goal is sharing information and critiquing response in dealing with murders.

"The public generally believes there is this constant communication going on between the agencies, and what we have found is that it doesn't happen," O'Brien said. "This allows you to create a forum for open discussions where you're doing a better job with your investigations and collaboration on the strategies you're going to develop."

Investigators share everything from criminal histories, juvenile justice and probation and parole information to known associates of suspects and social media information.

LSU has already started mapping crime in Baton Rouge so investigators can get a better geographical sense of how many times police or the sheriff's office has responded to a specific address. The next step would be getting local law enforcement agencies to collectively share information learned from it.

"We have a process in place where each and every homicide, each and every non-fatal shooting is going to be evaluated and reviewed by a whole host of law enforcement type of people so that we all know that we're doing the right thing and all on the right page so that we can prevent the next murder and make a better case for the one we currently have," Moore said.

Once up and running, the panel would meet every two weeks to share information and discuss the cases. Those meeting would become less frequent if and when crime rates drop in Baton Rouge.