BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Louisiana State Police said it spent more than $67,000 for increased security around the state Capitol during protests held by Donald Trump’s supporters after the former Republican president lost his reelection bid.
Lt. Nick Manale, state police spokesperson, said the agency’s $67,450 in personnel costs covered more than 1,200 hours of security work to monitor the protests and bolster the law enforcement presence amid concerns about potential threats at state capitols around the country, particularly after the U.S. Capitol riot Jan. 6.
It’s unclear exactly how much of the money would have been spent on staffing shifts elsewhere and how much paid for overtime that wouldn’t have otherwise been accrued. The information provided to The Associated Press didn’t break out the charges.
But Manale said the lion’s share of the cost involved overtime charges. More than 900 of the 1,200 hours in state police work done for Louisiana Capitol security in response to the protests were overtime hours, he said.
Unlike the siege on the U.S. Capitol that saw hundreds of rioters ransack the building to try to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory, Louisiana’s protests of the election results were peaceful and involved no more than a few hundred people at any of the gatherings on the state Capitol steps.
The state House and Senate said they had no additional costs relating to building security. Members of the Louisiana National Guard traveled to Washington to help with Biden’s inauguration security, but the agency said its costs were entirely covered by the federal government.