The Chief's Blog

3'26/14

I call it the Territorial Waters Plan, and it extends our interaction and response beyond our city limits.  St. Landry Parish is a big area.  St. Martin Parish stretches out to Arnaudville, with not much in between.  Technically, the Arnaudville Police Department is charged with patrolling and responding to incidents that occur within the city limits of Arnaudville.  And this seems to be the current operating procedure.

The Territorial Waters Plan would/could extend the response area -- not the "patrol" area -- to cover calls within the 70512 zip code, but is contingent on the establishment of a strong working and relationship with St. Martin and  St. Landry Parishes.  We would make a commitment to respond, secure the scene and stabilize the situation, upon the availability of our officers while waiting for St. Martin or St. Landry officers to arrive at the scene.  As a rural community, it is imperative that we take advantage of the resources and assistance Arnaudville can receive from having strong relationships and partnering with neighboring law enforcement agencies.  We do have the capacity to assist them, and in turn, they certainly have the capacity to assist us.

The Territorial Waters Plan broadens our reach, but the return for doing so eliminates the "territorial" attitude and the isolation model we have been working under for the last several years.

By the way, I am so proud of Ginger for going to Baton Rouge today to champion three bills that will improve our state's domestic violence laws and extend more rights to victims.  She, along with other women and United Way colleagues took the capitol by storm, and there was standing room only in the House Committee on Criminal Justice.