Gov.-elect Jeff Landry has picked a Crescent City native to lead Louisiana State Police and plans to expand the use of troopers to fight crime here, he announced Wednesday at a news conference at the Superdome.

Maj. Robert Hodges will become the new LSP superintendent once Landry takes office Jan. 8. Maj. Frank Besson, a 24-year LSP veteran, will become chief of staff, the number two spot in the agency.

An LSU graduate in criminal justice and Brother Martin High School alumnus, Hodges has been with State Police for 28 years, spending most of that time with the patrol and investigations divisions. He currently oversees LSP Region 2 Patrol which encompasses 18 southern parishes.

The governor-elect offered minimal details on what the expanded role of state troopers will be in New Orleans, saying he didn’t want to share any strategy specifics with criminals.

Asked how State Police might be able to respond in ways the New Orleans Police Department can’t because of federal consent decree restrictions, Landry had a brief response: “Stay tuned.”

Also at Wednesday’s news conference, Landry said incoming Attorney General Liz Murrill has reached an agreement to provide additional prosecutors to supplement the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s staff. Personnel from the AG’s office will handle any arrests and investigations that State Police initiate or oversee.

Orleans DA Jason Williams was present for the announcement. He said there will be “no lines of demarcation” with regards to which cases his prosecutors and the AG’s team handles.

Murrill also announced she intends to hire former federal prosecutor Ed O’Callahan to conduct an internal study of State Police, which is also the target of a U.S. Department of Justice investigation. The federal probe was launched following the revelations of a 2021 Associated Press report on the in-custody death of Ronald Greene, a Black motorist, two years earlier at the hands of white troopers.