YOUNGSVILLE, La. — Early voting for the November election starts on October 18th, and KATC TV-3 is giving you the information you need to cast your ballot in local races.
On Thursday, we're introducing you to the three candidates for Youngsville Police Chief. We've asked each candidate the same questions, and their complete unedited responses are posted on our website in video and written form.
On Friday, we'll bring you the three candidates running for Iberia Parish Tax Assessor, at 6 p.m. - and we'll have election stories like this for you every day through the 17th.
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Below are the answers from Jean Paul "JP" Broussard, Youngsville Police Chief candidate. Broussard had a medical procedure and wasn't available for an on-camera interview, but he gave us his answers in writing:
1. YOUNGSVILLE HAS BEEN UNDER SCRUTINY IN THE PAST OVER OFFICIALS NOT BEING HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD, HOW DO YOU HOPE TO BUILD TRUST BACK INTO THE COMMUNITY?
"Trust is earned through transparency, accountability, and ethical behavior. As Chief, I will set clear conduct standards for all officers, ensure thorough investigations of any misconduct, and maintain open communication with the community. I believe in leading by example and will hold myself and every member of our department to the highest standards of integrity."
2. WHAT ARE THE CHANGES THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO IMPLEMENT IF YOU DO WIN THE ELECTION?
My priorities include:
- Elevate Youngsville to the #1 Safest City in Louisiana through effective policing strategies.
- Implement cutting-edge training programs for officers.
- Pursue CALEA accreditation to meet national standards and minimize costly, frivolous lawsuits. Notably, the City of Youngsville has paid over $1.8 million in settlements in 2024 alone, a burden we must reduce through stringent standards and effective management.
- Enhance community engagement initiatives to strengthen the bond between law enforcement and residents.
3. WHAT WILL YOU BE ABLE TO PROVIDE DIFFERENTLY THAN THOSE OF THE OTHER CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR THE POSITION?
"My unique background as both a paramedic and a law enforcement officer gives me a well-rounded understanding of public safety, allowing me to approach policing with a focus on both protection and service. Additionally, my deep roots in the community and conservative values resonate deeply with the values of Youngsville’s residents."
4. WHAT ARE YOUR LAW ENFORCEMENT QUALIFICATIONS?
"I have been involved in law enforcement since 2009, initially as a Reserve Deputy Marshal, later advancing to a full-time Deputy Marshal. My accolades include the Life Saving Award and being named Crime Stopper Officer of the Year in 2020. I have completed the FBI-LEEDA Trilogy Leadership Series Training, underscoring my dedication to continual professional development in law enforcement leadership."
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Below are the answers for current interim Youngsville Police Chief Cody Louviere:
1. YOUNGSVILLE HAS BEEN UNDER SCRUTINY IN THE PAST OVER OFFICIALS NOT BEING HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD, HOW DO YOU HOPE TO BUILD TRUST BACK INTO THE COMMUNITY?
"Being Interim Chief for the last year and and a little bit more. I think I've already started that. I think accountability starts here. It starts in this seat. It starts with this position. You have to hold yourself to that standard. You have to make sure that we're following policies, we're following procedures. One thing I say all the time, I tell it to my kids to my officers, to my, my supervision, to my command staff is it's too easy to do the right thing.
You do the right thing for your citizens. You do the right thing for the, for the people that you help every day. You do the right thing for the people that aren't your citizens that are in your city that, that you are helping and you're, you're put in place to help every day. That's where it starts, is is making sure your policies are strong, your policies are followed and that everybody is doing their part to watch out for one another and, and hold that person next to you accountable for their decisions and what they're doing and passing on that information when, when people fail.
At the end of the day, in my opinion, I told my, my supervision since I got in here, there's two questions you should ask. Is it training or is it discipline? Is it a training factor that we need to train our guys better that maybe they don't understand the policy before we get into that realm of discipline to make sure they understand what they're doing."
2. WHAT ARE THE CHANGES THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO IMPLEMENT IF YOU DO WIN THE ELECTION?
"Luckily for me, I'm in this position. So we've already started those changes, you know, we've already started improving on our policies and procedures, improving on those measures for those officers, improving training that we bring to our officers, which is only gonna get to be more as, as we progress through past this election cycle.
With my visions and my plans is you need to provide your officers with that next level training, whether it be use of force training, whether it be firearms training, whether it be dealing with mental illness, not only dealing with mental illness in our citizens and the crisis that we face every day with our citizens, but also facing mental illness that our officers deal with on a daily basis with, you know, a lot of people don't think of the things that they see and the hardships that they're dealing with mentally with their own family, maybe problems within then dealing with citizens every day.
So all of those things together, I think is my vision going forward is make sure our guys are trained as well as they can be to deal with those things as they come."
3. WHAT WILL YOU BE ABLE TO PROVIDE DIFFERENTLY THAN THOSE OF THE OTHER CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR THE POSITION?
"I think my view of law enforcement in the time that I've been here you know, I've been in law enforcement for now 22 years.
I've been in leadership roles at my previous employment at the Lafayette Sheriff's office that had a strong backbone. With Sheriff Mark Garber, Sheriff Mike Neustrom before him, where I spent my entire career in patrol in law enforcement.
Not only is it a passion of mine, but it's something that I've absorbed knowledge and never stop learning. I bring that, I bring these leadership abilities that I've done at the sheriff's office and I've provided over there, I've been through the FBI Leadership Academy already. It's taught me a lot along with working with very strong supervisors in my past.
So being that my entire career is in law enforcement. It's it's in me to bring this to this department and to teach them the things I've learned and to help my command staff through also helping those officers be the best and turn them into leaders because realistically you're a leader from day one and you should look at yourself as that in order to bring with your whole department with you."
4. WHAT ARE YOUR LAW ENFORCEMENT QUALIFICATIONS?
"I started off in law enforcement in 2002 as a reserve for the Lafayette Sheriff's office. Just giving my time to the community for free. Then I decided I wanted to get paid for it. So, I went into patrol after that, which I did patrol as a reserve but patrol, I was a canine officer for six years. Then I decided it was time for a step up. So I worked my way until I got promoted to patrol sergeant.
Most recently prior to leaving the sheriff's office last year, I was a Patrol lieutenant, also known as a watch commander. I ran my own shift. I just brought that sense of camaraderie and leadership to the department to pass it on to our citizens. Then I stepped into this role in August of last year and just trying to be progressing ever since."
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Below are the answers for Matt Thomassee, Youngsville Police Chief candidate:
1. YOUNGSVILLE HAS BEEN UNDER SCRUTINY IN THE PAST OVER OFFICIALS NOT BEING HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD, HOW DO YOU HOPE TO BUILD TRUST BACK INTO THE COMMUNITY?
"So I think the biggest part of building trust back into the community is being involved in the community.
Youngsville is a rapidly growing community and with that, there's been a lot of growing pains and during that growth period, the community has become detached from the police department and when you had the issues with the scandals and things are going on in, in the community that has further separated the community from the police department. So I think you gotta get back into the community.
You have to have these discussions with the community and you have to build that trust back and, and it starts also within the department. You have officers who may not trust other officers because of things. So you have to build that trust in the department and then expand it out into the community and work with the community to solve the crime issues in the community."
2. WHAT ARE THE CHANGES THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO IMPLEMENT IF YOU DO WIN THE ELECTION?
"So the first thing if I were to win the election, I would want to do is what I'm gonna call a comprehensive operational review. That would basically entail going through the entire department of fine tooth comb from operations to budget to training and retention and hiring and everything.
I do have ideas as far as what I would like to see the department become.
But I think it would be premature at this point for me to say I want to go in and do X or I want to go in and do Z simply because you have to understand the dynamics of the organization first, it would be inappropriate to say gonna go remove this position or make this change without understanding first, the full impact of doing so.
So the comprehensive operational review is essential. It is critical to go in there examining things as they are today before making any decisions on changes."
3. WHAT WILL YOU BE ABLE TO PROVIDE DIFFERENTLY THAN THOSE OF THE OTHER CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR THE POSITION?
"So I think I am uniquely qualified for the position for several reasons. One, I have been a part of the community in Youngsville for almost 40 years now. That is the community where I have grown up.That is the community I love that is the community where I intend to stay. I've raised my family there. I'm a father, a grandfather, a husband. So I'm really deeply tied to that community. Aside from that, I have roughly 15 years of law enforcement experience. As a law enforcement officer, I served in several roles, mostly supervisor managerial or admit of roles."
4. WHAT ARE YOUR LAW ENFORCEMENT QUALIFICATIONS?
"I was an accreditation manager, an operations manager, as well as a police recruit, background investigator and a training officer with the Lafayette Parish sheriff's office for almost 15 years when I left the sheriff's office and went into the private sector, I began working in private security and private investigative work. And that's the work I continue to do this day.
So, overall, I have about 25 years of experience combined in law enforcement, private security, private investigations, that is something different than other candidates bring to the table.
and I'd like to leverage what I know in private security, private investigations as well as law enforcement to see what we can do to address a lot of what I'm gonna call special security concerns in our community, which would be our parks, our schools, our senior living facilities, things of that sort."
