BATON ROUGE - Bill Profita with the Baton Rouge Union of Police was a vocal critic of former Police Chief Murphy Paul when he was in charge, but says new Chief 'TJ' Morse is getting the job done.

"From the union standpoint on the basis of his communication with the public, with the officers, with the union, his willingness to talk to everybody, the increased presence of police officers in troubled areas, the number of arrests -- he's right at the top of the scale. I think we have to give him an 'A'," Profita said. 

Part of the union's praise comes from the increase in arrests currently being made amid one of the most murderous years in Baton Rouge history.

In Chief Morse's first 100 days he implemented proactive policing to try and tamp down the homicide numbers. According to stats kept by BRPD, officers have made nearly 868 felony arrests this year.

Officers have also arrested 208 juveniles, seized 363 guns and recovered 355 stolen vehicles.

"The people who are doing this everyday -- the men and women of the police force -- are getting more people into the system. It's up to the D.A. to prosecute them, make the cases. It's up to the judges to hand out their punishment, but some of these arrests go back to murders and things two, three years ago and I think the public can feel pretty good about that."

Statistics are updated and shared monthly on the BRPD Facebook page, in accordance with Morse's promise of more transparency.

"I do think that this chief has been very very open with the public. He's been very very open with the officers. He has been very very accommodating to the union. I mean, when was the last time you heard of a police chief saying, 'In my first three months, I'm going to meet with every officer one-on-one and anyone else from the community or government that wants to meet with me.'"