In the middle of an investigation into his use of public resources, Mayor-President Josh Guillory’s practice of using Lafayette Police Department officers as his full-time personal security has come to an end, The Current is reporting.
Sources connected to law enforcement confirm to the newspaper that the Lafayette officers have been informed that the full-time detail has been discontinued; it is unclear whether Guillory or his new police chief, Judith Estorge, made the call.
Late last year, the City Council authorized a two-pronged investigation that includes auditing the “direct or indirect expenditure of public funds or use of personnel, employees, assets or resources of the city of Lafayette by the mayor-president.” The Current first reported in November that the inquiry concerned Guillory’s use of Lafayette Police officers as his personal security detail. Guillory has consistently denied wrongdoing and has characterized the council investigation as “political theater.”
But the Baton Rouge firm was given wide latitude to investigate and that investigation is underway. To read more, click here.
The Current reports that the unusual and costly decision (an LCG consultant’s analysis concluded the practice was biting $244,000 out of the PD budget annually) to dedicate members of the Lafayette Police Department’s Dignitary Protection Unit for his full-time security and any potential abuses may draw interest from the Louisiana legislative auditor’s office, which confirmed this week that it is investigating the Guillory administration.
According to the Current, at an August budget hearing, then-interim Chief Monte Potier explained to the City Council that two Dignitary Unit officers (at one time it was three) were providing full-time security to the mayor-president with others rotating as part of a “volunteer unit.” The officers, a sergeant and a corporal, were actually assigned to the PD’s criminal investigation division but unavailable to do any of that work because they were always by Guillory’s side. The two plain clothes officers were with Guillory at the investiture ceremony for City Court Judge Jules Edwards on Jan. 4, an event held in a courthouse where security already exists.
To read The Current's full story about this development, click here.
