By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Wayne L. Jones said this week he will be pursuing a fifth term in office this October but added that if he is re-elected it would be his last term as Sheriff.

Jones, 57, said he is in good health and still energetic about the job, but he is ready to move on and let someone else take over the job.

“I’m not going to wear out my welcome,” said Jones jokingly. “I got into law enforcement at 19. I’ve approached every day with enthusiasm, but sometimes you just know when it is time to go.”

Jones said he joined the St. John Sheriff’s Office in 1978 under then-Sheriff Lloyd Johnson. He was Johnson’s chief investigator when he first ran for the office in 1994, following Johnson’s retirement.

“If I’m fortunate enough to get re-elected in October, I will have 20 years as Sheriff under my belt at the end of that term and 36 years total with the St. John Sheriff’s Office,” Jones said. “The voters know what they have with me, and it will be up to them to decide if I have earned another term.”

Jones said the last few years in office have been some of the best of his career. He said he has enjoyed working with District Attorney Tom Daley, who has implemented law enforcement initiatives that had not been in place in the past.

“We are getting more prosecutions and putting more people in jail that deserve to be there,” Jones said. “We have more pre-trial detainees behind bars right now than we’ve ever had before. We have made it much harder for serious criminals to get out of jail and back on the streets. We no longer have the issue of dealing with the same criminals going in and out.”

Jones said he has also enjoyed consecutive years of decreased crime in the parish. Jones said the parish experienced a 17 percent drop in crime in 2009 compared to 2008, and he expects an additional drop when the 2010 crime stats are released later this month.

“The drop won’t be as dramatic as the 2009 drop, because of activity toward the end of the year, but it will still be down,” Jones said. “We have a good system in place, and I hope to carry this momentum into my final term.”