K.P. Gibson continued his quarterly “Coffee with the Sheriff” program before a sizeable crowd Saturday morning at The Rice Palace.
The sheriff implemented the program when he took office 18 months ago and has hosted such events in various areas of the parish since.
“It’s an opportunity for me to give you an update on what’s going on in your sheriff’s office and to answer any questions you might have,” Gibson said.
As he has at previous such events, Gibson explained that one of the biggest changes in the operations of the sheriff’s office has been the increase of patrol units.
“We basically had three patrol zones. We now have six,” Gibson said. “In addition to that, we have the Crime Suppression Unit, so at any given time there could be as many as nine deputies on the road.”
He went on to say that response time is a major concern.
“We brought the average response time down to about 26 minutes,” he said. “Our goal is 20 minutes, but Acadia is a pretty large area to cover.”
He added that patrol units average 45,000 to 50,000 miles a year and he has challenged deputies to “go out and find places (in the parish) you’ve never been.”
Gibson admitted that the area that caused him the most concern since taking over as sheriff has been the Corrections Department.
“We’ve made some changes there as far as security,” he said. “There was a problem with tobacco, cell phones and drugs coming into the facility. Prisoners have a lot of time to sit around and be creative about how to get contraband into the jail.”
He said that remedies put into place have reduced the amount of contraband entering the jail by about 70 percent this year.
While he admitted that he, as sheriff, gets “all the credit” when something good happens, “We are a team and if we don’t operate as a team, we’re going to crash.”
He lauded the work of the 105 full-time and 20 part-time employees of the sheriff’s office.
“We’re rolling pretty well right now and I’m really proud of what our men and women are doing,” he added.
A number of deputies and department heads were on hand for the event and Gibson introduced each.
