Tregre: St. John is murder-free over 1st 6 months

Published 12:01 am Saturday, July 11, 2015

Well here we are. The first six months of 2015 are in the books — record books that is. For the first time in 12 years there have been no homicides in St. John Parish in the first six months of the calendar year.

This has only been achieved twice since 1988. In the seven major categories of crime, homicide stands out as priority for law enforcement agencies, and we are proud of our improvements over the past three years.

There are many different factors that I can contribute to the increased success of our department in 2015.

Once the citizens passed the quarter-cent sales tax, the extra funding allowed me to take this department to a new level.

In addition to across-the-board pay raises, this department has been provided with an increase in the number of officers on the streets, especially during peak crime times, better training for patrol, dispatchers and investigators, upgraded equipment in all departments and crime cameras throughout the parish, which have been instrumental in solving homicides and burglaries in the past year.

Secondly, SJSO has worked diligently to earn the trust of the community. It took bold and unpopular moves within the department by getting some officers out of their comfort zones in order to work as a team with the community to achieve this goal, but we are steadily moving forward.

We have created a partnership with citizens who have home surveillance systems by having them register with our department. In many cases, a home surveillance system has provided the necessary footage to identify suspects in criminal cases.

This partnership is new to St. John Parish, and as it gets stronger, so will our ability to fight crime.

Our Facebook page, website and smartphone app provide total transparency into all activity at SJSO and to any crime in your neighborhood, within 48 hours or sometimes sooner of occurrence.

Lastly, SJSO has built a reputation of “giving our all” to solve cases. We don’t seek to simply make an arrest in a criminal complaint, but SJSO Criminal Investigations Division strives to build a strong case so that we will get a conviction for the crime, in hopes of putting an end to arresting the same people for the same crimes over and over again.

This success rate has served to be a deterrent for the criminal element.

As I start the beginning of the last year of my first term in office, I acknowledge that there is still work to be done.

I am thankful for the citizens who are stepping up and getting involved in keeping crime down in our community.

Hopefully, more people will continue to get involved and provide fresh leads to other unsolved cases, no matter how old they may be.

Anyone with information can call us anonymously a 985-359-TIPS.

Mike Tregre is Sheriff of St. John the Baptist Parish. He can be reached at sheriff@stjohnsheriff.org.