MELVILLE, La. — Melville residents are tired of their police chief.
But, the city does not have enough funds to contract the St. Landry sheriff’s department to intervene. Sheriff Bobby Guidroz says he’ll continue to come to the town for life-or-death situations, but the local police department, led by Anthony Moreau should be able to handle everything else. The city council says that’s not realistic.
Alderman April Butler Goudeau says the chief simply doesn’t want to work.
“He constantly says he’s not going to work because he does not have to work because the law says he does not have to work,” she said during the meeting. “We need to know why we need to continue to pay an elected official that does not want to work and secure the safety of the residents of the town of Melville.”
Some of the complaints from those who attended the meeting:
A woman said the chief will do whatever he wants and book people on crimes that aren’t accurate.
Plus, a woman died because the chief refused to perform CPR saying, his department doesn’t deal with that.
“EMTs asked the chief to assist them with first aid and CPR,” said Butler. “He told them his department does not do that”
The sheriff told KATC, Melville simply does not have enough money to hire his team.
The town’s budget is around $180,000 to cover the police department.
“That’s not enough money for me to cover my expenses to come here and do the job that I need to do actually,” said Guidroz. “I’m going to send two officers per day, dispatchers, narcotics, detectives, and all the related benefits so $200,000... $300,000 would satisfy the cost.”
The back and forth during the meeting pointed to a standstill.
The sheriff says he can’t afford to keep sending deputies for free. He’s answered 111 calls from Melville. The mayor and council say they can’t afford a contract, and the police chief says he’s injured and will not steer away from his doctor’s orders.
Plus, the city can’t hire an assistant chief without a recommendation from the chief himself.
A man at the meeting says he worked for the police department for a while because he thought the residents of Melville deserve better law enforcement.
He says, he had to quit because he couldn’t deal with the chief’s laziness and lack of leadership.
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