La. State Police chief retires amid probes, controversy
20th March 2017 · 0 Comments
Just weeks after news stories surfaced about four Louisiana state troopers who misused public funds to pay for unauthorized stops at Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon as they drove from Baton Rouge, La. to San Diego, Calif. to attend a law enforcement conference last fall, Louisiana State Police Col. Mike Edmonson announced that he will step down on March 24.
Col. Edmonson’s decision to retire as LSP superintendent was announced Wednesday in a joint statement with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who said last month that there would be a thorough investigation of the 2016 road trip after the story was released by WWL News and The New Orleans Advocate.
COL. MIKE EDMONSON
“Today, after careful consideration and many discussions regarding the future of the state police, Col. Edmonson notified me of his retirement,” the statement said. “Together, we believe this is the best approach for the department. Throughout many natural and man-made disasters, Col. Edmonson has been a steady hand and strong leader for the people of Louisiana. I, and many of the people of Louisiana, have sought Col. Edmonson’s counsel on numerous occasions, and he has provided leadership and support when we’ve needed it most.
“Since taking office, I have relied on the men and women of the Louisiana State Police more than I would have liked, but I am proud to say that they have some of the most skilled and dedicated individuals serving in their ranks. Much of their success is due to Col. Edmonson’s innovative thinking and concern for our state.”
Edmonson, 58, was tapped to lead the Louisiana State Police by former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. He holds the distinction of being the longest-serving LSP superintendent in state history after a nine-year stint as the state’s top cop.
“I have decided that it is in the best interests of the state that I retire from my position as deputy secretary of public safety and superintendent of State Police,” Edmonson said in a statement Wednesday. “The governor has never asked that I step down.
“I recognize that the Louisiana State Police is bigger than any one person,” he added. “It is certainly bigger than Mike Edmonson.”
The retirement announcement comes as a surprise to some since Edmonson told Nola.com/The Times-Picayune in a March 11 interview that he had “not offered to resign or retire, nor have not been asked to do so.”
Edmonson, who often boasted about running a tight ship, was the target of harsh criticism in 2014 when the Louisiana Legislature increased the retirement benefits of Edmonson and another LSP employee by a combined $300,000. Despite a budgetary crisis, the legislature approved the bill, which contained a secretive amendment hiking the benefits, in the final hours before the session came to an end.
As pressure mounted, Edmonson ultimately backed away and rejected the increased benefits package.
As head of the LSP, Edmonson was often seen assuring local residents that law and order would prevail during major tourist events in New Orleans with elected officials using LSP officers to shore up the undermanned New Orleans Police Department during annual events like the Bayou Classic, Mardi Gras and New Year’s festivities.
However, some of the city’s Black residents and civil rights advocates argued that Louisiana state troopers were not a good fit for New Orleans, whose police department is under a federally mandated consent decree aimed at ensuring that the troubled NOPD become compliant with federal standards for constitutional policing.
That point was driven home during the 2014 Carnival season when two 17-year-olds, Ferdinand Hunt and Sidney Newman, were physically assaulted by plainclothes state troopers as they stood in the French Quarter after a parade waiting on one of the teens’ mother, NOPD Officer Betty Hunt, to bring them a meal. The entire incident was caught on video surveillance and the state troopers left the scene after Officer Hunt approached them and identified herself as Ferdinand Hunt’s mother.
While New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said it was an LSP issue and not an NOPD incident, video footage clearly showed a white female NOPD officer directing the plainclothes state troopers to confront the teens.
Ultimately, the two teens’ families filed formal complaints with the U.S. Department of Justice.
After the incident, the mayor was invited by civil rights and grassroots organizations to discuss the problem of racial profiling in New Orleans. Instead, the mayor held his own meeting at an uptown New Orleans church to promote his NOLA for Life initiative on the same date and at the same time.
Racial profiling continued to be an issue in New Orleans after trumpeter Shamarr Allen was stopped on his way from a late-night gig by state troopers looking for an escaped prisoner in the Lower Ninth Ward. Allen said he was roughed up by the troopers and thrown to the ground.
At least two federal lawsuits were filed against the Louisiana State Police last year. One involved a barber who says he was detained, questioned and assaulted by state troopers as he sat outside his barbershop in the CBD. The troopers said they were responding to a report that there were four males driving around in the area waving guns out of a car window.
The second incident involved a 17-year-old college student who was stopped, detained and questioned by police as he stood in the French Quarter talking with his father on his cellphone. The teen, his father and other students were visiting New Orleans to study the city’s architecture.
New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and NOPD Supt. Michael Harrison issued a statement Wednesday that said, “Under his leadership, the Louisiana State Police and the New Orleans Police Department have benefited from an effective, healthy partnership. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors.”
Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand praised Edmonson for being a steady, reliable leader in law enforcement for sheriff’s offices and police departments across the state since becoming LSP chief in 2008.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards allowed Edmonson to remain in his post as LSP chief after the private Louisiana State Troopers Association, comprised of many of Edmonson’s employees, endorsed Edwards in the 2015 gubernatorial race.
After learning that the LSTA had inappropriately contributed to the political campaigns of Edwards and other candidates in 2014 and 2015, the state Ethics Board fined the association $5,000.
Individual state troopers are not allowed to make political contributions. Nola.com reported that when Edwards discovered that he had been the recipient of inappropriate campaign contributions, he returned the association’s money
The Advocate reported that federal investigators have presented a series of grand jury subpoenas to the LTSA’s board of directors related to its campaign contributions.
The New Orleans Advocate reported that two days before Edmonson announced his retirement, a state lawmaker asked the legislative auditor to probe nine years’ worth of Louisiana State Police financial records to determine whether there were any spending improprieties or misallocations of public funds.
Rafael Goyeneche, executive director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission, told Nola.com that Col. Edmonson’s decision to retire is “about a variety of things, some of which have been made public, some of which are not public yet.”
“There is nothing that I’m afraid of coming out,” Edmonson told reporters Wednesday. “The truth is the truth, and those things will happen regardless. I’m very confident in my tenure as superintendent.
“This organization will survive anything, even the things yet to come.”
This article originally published in the March 20, 2017 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
