Crime rate under Jones down dramatically in eight years

By KEVIN CHIRI

Publisher

LAPLACE – It is hard to look at the eight year record of St. John Sheriff Wayne Jones without seeing huge steps forward in the way law enforcement is being handled in the parish.

Not only has crime dropped in seven of the eight years since he took office, but he has begun numerous department programs that have added professionalism, and pure improvement, to law enforcement here.

But Jones would be the first one to also agree that he has forever had one criticism that he has yet to overcome.

“I think there is a big misconception about who I am personally,” he said. “I’m just not your typical public figure, who is out in the public a lot. And I think that has always led some people to view me in a detrimental light. I’ve worked on being more of a public figure, but it’s just not really who I am.”

For the people of St. John Parish, the vast majority will probably take Jones just as he is, especially when you look at the results he has produced.

The proof seems to be in what has happened to the Sheriff’s Office during Jones’ tenure, which recently begin its third term when he won re-election once again this past spring.

“I have a genuine concern for people, and law enforcement is something I finally realized is my calling. This is what I want to do, and even though I know I can never completely satisfy everyone, I feel very proud of where this department has come in the years I’ve been sheriff,” he said.

Taking a budget of $9 million a year in 1997, he is now overseeing a $13 million budget after the passage of a quarter-cent sales tax just over a year ago. But even with the growth of population in St. John Parish, Jones has guided the department to reduce crime from 2,405 total incidents in his first term in ’97, to a total of 1,570 total incidents last year. Homicides, in particular, have been kept very low to an average of only three a year in the last seven years, after there were nine the year before he came into office.

Jones has used much of the new money to help fund deputy salaries, which now rank in the top 10 out of 64 sheriff’s departments in the state.

Additionally, he has begun a host of programs that have added to the security and low crime that St. John residents enjoy.

Just this past year he began the Public Integrity Division, which is a department for any public complaints to be handled quickly and efficiently; in 1996 he began the K-9 Division, which has two trained officers in Keith Brooks and Ron Bertran guiding the K-9 dogs in the unit; he started the Nighttime Business Checks, which has officers making regular rounds to local businesses, and leaving a notification slipped under the door about what time they came by; and he has featured various ways to help senior citizens get checked on by officers or residents.

But perhaps two of his best new programs may be the S.O.R.T. unit, and his Citizens Contact Card program.

The SORT unit is a 12-member team of officers, instituted after the 9/11 attack, which now gives St. John Parish federally trained men who are ready to respond to any emergency with the most up-to-date skills and weapons.

The Citizens Contact Card is a program Jones began which has patrolmen meet all residents on their patrol area twice a year, making sure residents in the parish know just who is watching out for them, and who they can contact. The visit includes a check on what problems there may be in the area, and lets citizens know that the S.O. is trying to be a hands-on unit with the public.

“That is a basic survey of the people, so we can regularly ask people what is going on. Most of the comments we get from people have to do with speeding in their area, or maybe loud music,” he said. “But I want the residents here to know that we want to stay in touch with the community.”

Dad Was An Officer

Jones probably knew from his young days that law enforcement would be his career.

His father was a well-known state trooper in St. John Parish for 26 years. Charles “Buck” Jones is still mentioned to the new sheriff, from many people who remember him patrolling St. John in the earlier years.

“I didn’t have the closeness with my dad that I would have liked, and maybe that because he was on the night shift a lot, and also because he was 47 years old when I was born. The age difference, and later his battle with emphysema, made it hard for us to be as close as I would have liked,” he explained.

“But I always had a lot of respect for him and I remember when he would come home in his patrol car, I liked to go sit out in it and listen to the radio for them to call his number, ‘B8.’ I’d run in the house and tell him they were calling for him,” he recalled.

His mother was also well known in St. John Parish, working for 30 years at Roussel’s Restaurant as a waitress.

“My parents were both hard working people, and I was very close with my mom,” he said.

His father died in 1985, and his mother, Elma Jones, died two years ago.

“My dad encouraged me to go into law enforcement,” Jones noted. “So I guess I should have known that is where I would end up.”

Coming out of Riverside Academy, where Jones was a football player on the 1972 state championship team, he started working several odd jobs before longtime Sheriff Lloyd Johnson offered him a job.

Jones began as a patrolman making $450 a month, quickly moving up from 1976 to ’79 into the criminal investigation division.

“Sheriff Johnson is somebody I always admired, and if you were hard working for him, there was plenty of opportunity to move up quickly,” Jones added.

Switch In Careers

But in 1981, now married with a family, Jones took a short leave out of law enforcement when Bayou Steel located in this area. He was offered a job making $30,000, over twice what he was making for the sheriff’s office.

“Sheriff Johnson told me the door was always open to come back, but he understood I had to take care of my family,” Jones remarked.

But in 1985, D.A. John Crum and Johnson came up with a combination position for Jones that got him back to his true love.

“Due to my experience, they were able to put me in the D.A.’s office, making close to what I was making at Bayou Steel. I knew that was where I was supposed to be and really understood after leaving the police force that law enforcement was my calling,” he said.

He became the chief investigator for the D.A.’s office from 1987 to ’96, and during that time, was influenced by somebody he still holds in high regard to this day.

“I was assigned to Tom Daley, who I feel was the brightest attorney I have ever worked with,” Jones said. “He was a great influence on me, and taught me so much. But mostly, he is a Christian man who is one of the most sincere people I know to this day.” Daley is now a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge who still lives in the parish.

Leading Up To Sheriff

From the time Jones began as a patrol officer in St. John Parish, it seemed he was destined for the top spot.

He rose so quickly through the ranks, then gained district attorney office experience, and added his own law enforcement certification from Southeastern Louisiana University. Clearly he was qualified.

But like all young officers who have to learn the ropes, he remembers some of the early experiences that left an impressive.

“I never forgot my first day on the job,” he said. “I worked with Sgt. Ronald Amedee on the 11-7 shift and within an hour we got a call about a disturbance at a bar. I was a big guy, so we pulled up and we saw a fight outside, and that meant I was to get the biggest guy. I cuffed him and put him in the back seat of the police car, and the guy immediately started spitting on me through the screen. Sgt. Amedee showed me how to handle that by spraying the guy with mace, which quickly settled him down. He told me, ‘Welcome to Law Enforcement.'”

Jones said that he became well-known in a hurry as “Buck’s” son. But his dad gave him the example that became his philosophy to this day.

“My dad told me to always treat everyone fairly, and never belittle or embarrass someone in front of their family. My personality has always been to try and be fair with people and I think that earned me respect that helped me win election many years later,” he said.

One of the scariest incidents in his early days was when he was called to a shooting in Reserve. Pulling up to the scene, the officers saw a man sitting on the ground with a shotgun wound to the leg and groin.

“We didn’t know where the shot came from, but after hearing a girl scream in the house and getting her out, we checked the house across the street, where we found a frail, old man who said he shot the guy because it was his relative who was going to take his driver’s license away,” Jones explained.

But the scary aspect to the story is that the man who admitted to the shooting said he almost shot all the police officers when they got out of their cars.

“He said he was about to shoot us all, but decided not to since he knew we didn’t have anything to do with it. We could have all been killed so easily if he wanted to,” Jones remarked. “It was one of those things I was a little hesitant to tell my wife until a few days later.”

When Sheriff Johnson announced his plans to resign in 1996, Jones was quickly approached about running for office.

“I had already thought I would like to, but I would never have run against Sheriff Johnson,” he said. “But when I knew he was retiring, I wanted to run.”

Jones’ reputation did him well in the election. His first race in 1996 for the open seat saw seven candidates in the race, but Jones incredibly won in the primary with 58 percent of the vote.

He has since won re-election, both times against a lone opponent, by taking 65, then 57 percent of the vote.

“I had so much support when Sheriff Johnson retired, and winning the way I have each time has confirmed to me that most of the people think I’m doing a good job. I know I will never please everyone, especially people you arrest or their relatives. But in my heart, I know that my interest is to make this the best law enforcement agency it can be, and also to make sure we pay our people well and keep them here,” he added.

Jones admits that he may seek up to a quarter-cent sales tax addition sometime in the near future, with the money being dedicated to deputy salaries.

“I’m just trying to look ahead and make sure that what we do here will remain. I want our programs to be consistent, but unfortunately that takes money. Our health care costs have gone up $775,000 in the last four years, so to pay that, and to keep up with better salaries will eventually take more money,” he added.

Personally, Jones said he will probably run for one more term, which would then get him 30 years in law enforcement for his retirement. But even at that point, he said he would like to serve on the state parole board.

Jones has been married for 32 years to his wife JoAnn, and the couple has three daughters.