Central City Needs a Strong Police Department

The City Budget of the City of Central was voted down last month by the City Council over a dispute involving a small amount of money in the budget of the Central Police Department.

While the amount in question was small, it is important for the Mayor and Council to decide just what the role of the Central Police Department is.

All of the city officials in this administration are new, and they have never faced some of these issues. Past mayors and councils did and settled on an approach that has seemed to work.

That approach is rather simple but we believe wise:

•The Sheriff should continue to be the chief law enforcement officer within the City of Central.

•Nevertheless, Central needs a strong and vibrant police department. Not too large and not too small but just right for Central.

Not too large because the cost of a full-fledged police department is simply too high.

For a municipality, the largest single expenditure is often the police department. For example, the City of Zachary (pop. 16,700) had a budget for 2017-2018 of $12.6 million. Of that amount, $3.8 million went to the Zachary Police Department, or just over 30 percent of the city budget. On the other hand, the City of Central (pop. 28,000) has a budget of $8.6 million with $760,000 allocated for the Central Police Department. 

It is clear that City of Central —with a much larger population than that of Zachary — could not fund a police department on the scale of Zachary’s without changing its financial model and raising taxes. 

That’s why the cooperation and support of the late Sheriff Elmer Litchfield (until Dec. 2006), former Sheriff Greg Phares (Dec. 2006 to Dec. 2007) and current Sheriff Sid Gautreaux (Dec. 2007 to present) have been so vital to allowing the City of Central to exist as a low-tax, privatized municipality. Upon incorporation of Central, Sheriff Litchfield agreed that the Sheriff’s office would continue to serve as the primary law enforcement agency serving the people of Central. Since he became sheriff in 2007, Sid Gautreaux and his office have gone above and beyond the call of duty to keep the people of Central safe and a very attractive place to live and work. It is fair to say that Sheriff Sid Gautreaux has made the City of Central possible.

On the other hand, politically, this parish is hanging by a thread. Hillary Clinton carried EBR by 20,000 votes. There is no assurance that we will always have an outstanding law-and-order sheriff like Sid Gautreaux. That’s why it is important that Central have a police department with the manpower and training to “go it alone” if that day should ever come.