Election time in Louisiana

It's becoming election time in Louisiana. Every four years, we go through the major election cycle for our little state, where we elect everyone from Police Jury members to the Governor. All of the state agency heads are up for grabs, as are most of the local agency heads, to include sheriff, assessor, clerk of court, and a host of other lesser and greater offices.

Election time is a grand hoot and the most interesting office that we're electing is that of Sheriff. Your scribe watches the Sheriff's elections closely because he is a cop, he works for a sheriff, and a sheriff's race is guaranteed to be the one to provide the most high drama or high comedy, depending on your outlook.

The Sheriff is probably the only official left who can hire and fire at will, almost on a whim. Deputies serve at the pleasure of the Sheriff and have to be sworn in each time the Sheriff is elected.

I remember one race in Natchitoches Parish where the incoming sheriff asked all of the deputies to attend him in the main courtroom. Almost all of them expected to listen to a short speech, then be sworn to another term of serving the people. The new Sheriff got everyone in the room, had the doors closed and told them all that they were egg-sucking dogs, had back the wrong guy, and they were fired. He collected the badges and sent them on their way. Then, he got his people together and swore them in.

I remember another election about the same time in Avoyelles Parish where the serving deputies all refused to serve the new sheriff and quit en masse. The poor fellow found himself alone in a 300 bed jail. His chief deputy was trying to break into the dispatch office. It seems that when midnight came, the old deputies walked off as one body. The jail had no food, one phone, and 300 hungry inmates. The chief deputy finally broke into the dispatch office and started taking calls, but had no one to dispatch. The local towns and state police helped him out until he could scrounge some deputies together and get them sworn and in cruisers. It was a hell of a first day for that new administration. They retired twenty years later and left that office in a lot better shape than when they found it.

Wholesale firings are rare these days because the Sheriff needs certified people to put on the streets. The Louisiana Post Council certifies who can act as police officers, so an incoming sheriff needs people with POST certification. Every cop in the US is certified by some variant of POST. In Texas, they call it TCLEOSE. Idaho publishes a complete list of POST agencies, by state.

Still, the Sheriff has the power to hire or fire and the office of Sheriff remains one of the most influential, powerful offices in Louisiana. Our old Sheriff is retiring and it's time for us to hire a new one. The next few months should be interesting ones all over Louisiana.