I am writing this post in reference to Sheriff Ackal’s proposed increase in the city budget. I hear a lot of people complaining that the Sheriff spent all sorts of money on cars, etc., and now he is asking for more than a million dollars increase for the budget for enforcement services in the city of New Iberia. Well, let me enlighten y’all to a few things here:

Sheriff Ackal did spend quite a bit of money on cars. Those cars are meant for patrolling the city of New Iberia. If he had not spend that money, he would have his deputies patrolling in vehicles that were used and abused, with more than 200,000 miles (which are the GOOD ones), and these old cars would be putting all of the IPSO deputies in danger. People complain about response times, but how do you expect a patrol unit to respond in a quick and efficient manner when they are driving clunkers? These cars are brand new, and equipped to handle the job at hand, so in my opinion, it was a great purchase. Buying used state police cars is not the answer!

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Second, people complain that the city is paying the Sheriff more than enough money to provide its service to the city. Well, let’s do some math here. The original NIPD (before the contract), ran on a budget of around 4.8 million dollars. When the old administration signed the contract, they said that they could provide the same service on a budget of only 3.4 million! I’m no mathematician, but I can tell you that it is impossible to run the same enforcement services for almost 1.5 million less!! In fact, if you don’t believe me, look at how the enforcement services were handled from the time the contract was signed, until July 1, 2008. Detectives were pulled off of their assignments to work patrol, response times were lacking…at best, crime was up, there was no traffic division…the list goes on.

Now, the Sheriff has boosted up detectives, manpower on patrol (there are 15 per shift for the city alone), there is an entire traffic division, response times are on average of 2 minutes, and crime certainly has gone down! However, the Sheriff is forced to provide this service at his own cost. The city is paying what the contract calls for, but this is nowhere near enough money to continue this kind of enforcement services in the city of New Iberia. The question I have is if the city needed more money to fund NIPD Enforcement, why do they think the Sheriff can do the same…or better, on so much less money!? All Sheriff Ackal is asking is for the money that it costs…nothing extra.

If you aren’t convinced that the Sheriff’s Department needs the increase that the Sheriff is requested…then let’s do some comparison shopping:

New Iberia (City): Population 32,910; Employees (City only) 100+; Budget: 3.4 million

Opelousas (City): Population 22,860; Employees (City) 100; Budget: 5 million

Slidell (City): Population 25,695; Employees (City) 119; Budget: 8.4 million

Houma (City): Population 32,393; Employees (City) 102; Budget: 8.6 million

Alexandria (City): Population 46,342; Employees (City) 202; Budget: 17.6 million

Bossier (City): Population 54,461; Employees (City) 259; Budget: Almost 18 million

What I am asking for you all to do is consider this and call your local city council person and tell them that you want the same great service that is being provided for you now, and you want them to approve the increase, so that some of these services suffer. Sheriff Ackal is not asking for a tax to be passed, he is not asking for a surplus of money…all he is asking for is the money that it costs to effectively enforce the city of New Iberia. Please give this some consideration and call your local council person.

Thanks!