Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 4036 AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: FEBRUARY 2017 This is incorrect. For instance, let’s head down to Louisiana – more specifically Evangeline Par- ish. Sheriff Eddie Soileau says he’s got a question for the lawyers. The question is: “Is it legal for a law enforcement agency to have no law en- forcement function?” It’s not like Soileau hates his job. There just isn’t any money in the budget that would allow him to do it. So according to docu- ments released with an Attorney General’s Office opinion, Soileau asked around for legal guidance on whether the Sheriff’s Office can skip the law en- forcement part. “What else is there?” you might be asking. Good ques- tion. The AG’s office respond- ed by saying that the sheriff has a legal duty to keep the peace and make arrests but that’s mostly “words on pa- per.” There’s nothing in the law that would require him to assign a certain number deputies to do patrol or any other law enforcement stuff. “Should a sheriff choose not to appoint deputies to assist in his law enforce- ment role, we could cite no statute that would forbid such a choice. But a sheriff is afforded no discretion in which of his legal duties to perform,” the opinion states. “Accordingly, despite the discretion available to sher- iffs regarding how to exe- cute certain official duties, it is our opinion that no public official may choose to shrug a yoke his office bears by constitutional decree.” In the letter to the AG’s office, Sheriff’s Office attor- ney Jonathan Vidrine asked whether the Sheriff’s Office could just collect taxes–you know, like the sheriff of Not- tingham. Vidrine says that’s the im- portant stuff anyway – the tax collecting. So he wanted to know if they could just do collections and 86 “the law enforcement side of the operation.” “In other words, we are requesting an opinion on whether a sheriff in Loui- siana can legally operate without having law enforce- ment duties and just having his tax collection matters and his civil service of pro- cess,” Vidrine wrote for an article in The Advocate. “As you may have read or watched on the news, the Sheriff’s Office is running at a deficit and simply does not have the budget nor a source of income to con- tinue the law enforcement part of his office.” If recent hiring and layoff patterns are any indication, the sheriff won’t be doing any law enforcement going forward. Sheriff Soileau had laid off 21 employees as of Septem- ber and has planned to lay off at least 10 more. Continued from page one The Sheriff of Nottingham of Robin Hood fame was also a tax collector as opposed to a cop. The late Alan Rickman played the role perfectly. If you think people are hostile to cops, talk to an IRS agent. Things could be a lot worse. Collections Dept. If you’re a longtime reader of American Police Beat, you might remember several articles about how drug tests that use peoples’ hair as samples have been shown to discriminate against black officers. As a result, black police of- ficers have sued after testing positive despite the knowl- edge that the tests are not that reliable. In Boston, the city has paid out more than $1.5 million in legal fees over the past decade defending the controversial hair test for cocaine. One might think that would give officials a reason to use a different and hope- fully more accurate test. But one would be wrong. The city has spent about $1.57 million since Sep- tember 2006 fighting legal challenges in both state and federal court defending the Boston P.D.’s use of the hair test. The Massachusetts Su- preme Court recently backed a ruling that found the department wrongly fired six officers who tested positive for drugs, five of whom are minorities. The ruling required the depart- ment to provide the officers back pay and benefits retro- active to 2010. Those officers have won their jobs back but state court rulings have upheld the termination of four other officers who failed the test. It’s almost like someone really likes this testing meth- od regardless of how much gets paid out in lawsuits. But not everyone wants to keep throwing good money after bad. “I’m outraged — it’s uncon- scionable. It’s not the city’s money, it’s the taxpayers’ money. And the taxpayers should be outraged,” said Larry Ellison, executive di- rector of the Massachusetts Association of Minority Law Enforcement Officers, which is a plaintiff in a sepa- rate federal case. Ellison added, “Diversity is something they talk about, but it’s not something they want. It’s not something they embrace.” Despite the losses, Boston Police Department brass says they are sticking with the hair tests that cost tax- payers millions. “We continue to use it now and there are no plans to change that. The commis- sioner has an obligation to ensure that the residents of the city are getting officers who are fit in performing duties,” spokesman Lt. Det. Michael McCarthy told re- porters. Despite wasted millions in payouts, city still uses lousy drug tests “We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.” – Hunter S. 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