BATON ROUGE - Gov. John Bel Edwards' trip to meet the Pope in Rome cost taxpayers $15,000 for his state police security detail.

Edwards personally paid travel costs for him and his wife for the weeklong trip in January.

The travel expenses for the governor's bodyguards were billed to the Louisiana State Police, which released its costs Friday to The Associated Press in response to a public records request.

The biggest charge was nearly $8,600 spent on overtime. Flights and transportation cost $3,000. Meals and lodging charges were about $1,700 each.

Edwards, Louisiana State Police Col. Mike Edmonson and two state lawmakers were among those on the trip, to meet with an order of nuns working to combat human trafficking, the Hospitaler Sisters of Mercy, and talk about the effort with Pope Francis.