Tom Peters, a business management guru, once said, “Good Leaders do not create good followers. They create other good leaders.”

I started my career at St. John Sheriff’s Office under Sheriff Lloyd B. Johnson, who was a kind and humble family man.

For me, he was my boss, my mentor and my friend. Sheriff Johnson will be remembered by many people for a lot of good reasons, but, I have chosen to make sure his legacy lives on long after the people that he knew, befriended, supervised and worked beside are gone.

Despite changes in crime patterns and advancements in technology, the mission is still the same.

We work around the clock to protect and serve the citizens of this parish.

As police officers, continuous training is key to the success of that mission. When I campaigned for sheriff of St. John in 2011, I pledged to provide ample training for all of the officers who serve this parish.

My command staff and I have taken many tours of other agencies and completed much research on current trends. We decided that an indoor shooting range and training facility was the most suitable idea for providing ongoing training for our staff.

So, after seven years of budgeting, planning, studying and researching ideas, I am proud to announce that St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office is about to begin the construction of a state-of-the-art law enforcement training facility in LaPlace.

This new training facility will benefit law enforcement, our local economy and the community. Instead of our officers traveling all over the country to obtain required training hours, we can do it here in St. John Parish by bringing certified instructors to our facility.

Our officers will now have a facility to cross train with other local, state and federal agencies. This will give our deputies the opportunity to network and train together for a better, safer Parish, State and Country.

This facility would certainly be a boost to the economy since our guests would be staying in our local hotels and dining at our restaurants.

Besides ongoing training for deputies, the training center will benefit civilians by hosting programs such as concealed weapon permits, female self defense classes (RAD) and teaching our children about hunter safety.

CPR and first aid instruction will be provided to the community by our very own CPR certified instructors. And, of course, our Citizens Academy that is currently underway, will have a new home.

So on Friday (May 17) at 10 a.m., the public is invited to the groundbreaking ceremony of the Lloyd B. Johnson Law Enforcement Training Facility on the construction site at 947 Cambridge Drive.

We will forever acknowledge the time, effort and sacrifice Sheriff Johnson made for St. John Parish to be a safer place to work, live and raise a family!

Finally on a personal note, my wife and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary on May 5. She has helped get me “through this thing called life” (in my Prince voice). She has been a positive source of encouragement in all of the endeavors of my life, so I think I will sign up for 29 more years!

Happy Anniversary Wifey!

Mike Tregre is sheriff of St. John the Baptist Parish. Reach him at m.tregre@stjohnsheriff.org.