St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz was the guest speaker Wednesday at the Eunice Rotary Club meeting.
Guidroz has been serving as St. Landry Parish Sheriff for almost 20 years. He was a Louisiana State Police officer for 26 years prior to becoming sheriff.
He was a Port Barre police officer and worked with the sheriff department as a young deputy. Guidroz has 51 years of experience with law enforcement.
Sheriff Guidroz, added, “I have been qualified to talk the talk and walk the walk because I have served in different fields of law enforcement. I have served as adjacent patrol, public affairs, gaming, have gaming background, and did gaming investigations.”
He graduated from the FBI National Academy in 1995. Guidroz said he had a wonderful career as a state trooper. He did out of state investigations in gaming.
He was at one time in charge of the Louisiana State Racing Investigation Unit. Guidroz added, “We were a small team of 18 people state wide. We worked the back side to make sure we had good tests on horse winners, and to make sure the blood was good in horses, and in many cases it was not. We were the law enforcement people that would do the job. We were straight, honest and we did the job.”
In gaming Guidroz was in charge of background investigation. He was in charge of the video poker businesses in Louisiana, when they were legal and illegal. Guidroz worked undercover, and he said, “That was fun. We found illegal poker machines before poker machines were legal and were passed, in Lafayette, St. Landry Parish, Acadia, Vermilion, St. Martin, St. Mary, and Rapides parishes.” Guidroz worked undercover for eight years.
Guidroz said, “Trust me when I tell you corruption is alive and well...and it gets worse.”
Along with Sheriff Guidroz at the meeting was Shane Garrard, CIO (Chief Information Officer) for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff. Guidroz, added, “Garrard takes care of drones. He takes care of people who may become lost. If we are looking for a vehicle, criminals, he takes care of this by usage of drones.”
Besides St. Landry Parish Sheriff department having access and usage of drones, they have license plate readers. These readers are put out throughout the parish. Guidroz added. “These readers are very high tech. We have, like I say alot in our tool chest, to fight crime.”
Garrard qualifies in expert forensics. Garrard showed off the drones to the Rotarians.
Garrard talked about technologies and some of the ways the drones help out in the parish to fight crime, or to help with the SWAT Team, or to locate missing persons at night. He added, “We have helped with the Wildlife & Fisheries locate illegal poaching and hunt them down.”
Garrard, said, “The drones are used for assurance and security for our SWAT Team. Some of the drones are small enough to fly inside a building. We have the license plate readers, and have put them all in place and in conjunction with the municipalities efforts. These license plate readers are read nationwide. If a car is stolen, these readers detect it.”
One question presented to Guidroz at the conclusion of the meeting was will Sheriff Bobby Guidroz run again for the next Sheriff’s election. His answer was Yes. Sheriff Guidroz turns 72 in April.
