Col. Bobby Dale Calender Endorses James Salsbury for Chief of Police

Earlier this year, retired East Baton Rouge Sheriff Col. Bobby Dale Callender considered running for Chief of Police in the City of Central. However, he ultimately decided not to for family reasons.

Now Col. Callender is making his views known on the race for Police Chief between the incumbent chief, Roger Corcoran, and the former chief, James Salsbury.  The election is Nov. 8.

It wasn’t an easy decision because Col. Callender knows both candidates very well.  Roger Corcoran and his top aide, Debbie Dougherty, are his cousins.

But Callender worked closely with former Chief James Salsbury and that experience made the difference to him.

“James is as hard a worker as I’ve ever seen, and he loves to be out patrolling our neighborhoods. He’s hands-on and demands a lot from his officers but yet works well with his people and is able to keep them,” Callender said.

“When I was at the Central Sub-Station, the Central Police Department was not able to be on the same radios with the Sheriff’s office, but Chief Salsbury met with the Sheriff one-on-one, and that problem was solved.”

“We at the Sheriff’s office were being overwhelmed with wrecks in Central.  It was making it difficult for us to handle the criminal complaints.  So I asked Chief Salsbury if the Central Police Department could help us service the wrecks in Central.  To my great surprise, he said, ‘We’ll work them all!’  And he did!  It was more than 600 wrecks the first year and 700 wrecks the second year!  You can imagine how much that freed up the Sheriff’s Office to work serious crimes.  People have no idea how much that did to hold down crime in Central,” Callender said.

“One of the things that blew me away was that Chief Salsbury himself worked as many wrecks as anyone in the department!”

“I went to one of the Central City Council meetings for the specific purpose of telling the Council and the citizens of Central how much Chief Salsbury was doing for the Sheriff’s Office.  We were always short-handed, but Chief Salsbury made it possible for us to focus on our core mission, which was serious crime.”

“In addition to wrecks, the Central Police Department under Chief Salsbury also helped with serious crimes.  When a 911 call came in, they would often beat us to the scene, and they would hold the scene until we arrived and could do the investigation.”

“When the current Chief said he would work burglaries and other crimes, we knew he couldn’t do that because he doesn’t have the personnel.  I can’t believe all the turnover and how many guys no longer work there.”

“Chief Salsbury did a fine job. From the standpoint of the Sheriff’s Office, he was great to work with and made us stronger.  From the standpoint of his police officers, all the guys loved him.   He is not one to sit in the office.  He was an active participant in what was happening everyday.”

“I have a high degree of confidence Chief James Salsbury will do an outstanding job if given the opportunity once again.”

Retired Col. Callender is a native and life-long resident of Central.  He served in law enforcement for 45 years, rising from deputy to colonel.

He graduated from Central High in 1966 and went to work at the Sheriff’s office in 1970.  He worked in uniform patrol, general detectives, felony action, armed robbery, burglary, and detectives under five sheriffs.

Callender was named Louisiana’s Outstanding Young Law Enforcement Officer of the Year and was named Deputy of the Year by the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.