BATON ROUGE - Mayor-President Sid Edwards addressed Baton Rouge Police cadets starting basic training Monday morning. 

Monday marked the start of the 93rd Basic Training Academy for the Baton Rouge Police Department. Police Chief T.J. Morse as well as newly-inaugurated Mayor-President Sid Edwards addressed the new class. 

This class of recruits wasn't as full as some previous years having twelve recruits, but Baton Rouge Police Chief Morse says he's trying to prioritize recruiting amid and ongoing officer shortage. 

Morse says the department trains officers above the state mandated 500 hours, pushing their officers to 850 hours of training, over the course of 22 weeks. According to the department's website, the starting pay for a Baton Rouge police officer is $40 thousand.

"We're sitting down having some conversations about whether our budget is going to look different, you know whether there's going to be a supplement to that," Morse said. "How can we get some assistance and some pay raises for our officers to entice more people to come be a police officer."

The new mayor says he recognizes that the city needs help, but that not just anyone can do what is needed. 

"There's just twelve in there," Edwards said. "It takes a very special person to come in here and do this."

The recruits were welcomed to training with a message from Edwards. 

""You've got almost half a million citizens, and there's a dozen people in there that want to take this on," Edwards said. "We need them. We need good men and women."

Morse, who used to train new recruits, also praised their willingness to serve the city. 

The recruits will train for 22 weeks and are set to graduate at the beginning of June.