By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – Randy Smith said he was given some good advice on the night he won election as the new sheriff in St. Tammany Parish.
“I was told to be humble and don’t bash the incumbent,” he said. “When they started playing ‘Hit the Road Jack’ I told them to stop. The election is over and Jack Strain has been a good sheriff—and that’s what I said.”
Now, less than two months from the time Smith will become the first new sheriff in St. Tammany in 20 years, and following an extensive review of all divisions at the department, Smith is still speaking well of the man he will replace, even if his actions suggest he plans big changes. Smith officially takes office with an inauguration ceremony planned on July 1.
Smith announced several high-ranking personnel changes in the past week as part of his transition operation, promised a new patrol district as part of an upgraded “visibility campaign,” and acknowledged he will be “changing the entire image” of the St. Tammany Sheriff’s Office.
Part of the visible changes will include a complete new look to the Sheriff’s Office vehicles and uniforms worn by all staff members there.
Instead of the beige uniforms that have been worn for most of Strain’s 20 years as sheriff, officers will soon be outfitted in royal blue uniforms with new badges and patches. All vehicles will change to a white background with royal blue lettering that looks nothing like the vehicles currently on the road.
Smith acknowledged he has received some criticism for the cost to “change the image” of the Sheriff’s Office, but said it is important, and not something that is unusual.
“When Jack Strain became sheriff following Pat Canulette he changed everything. If you look around our neighboring parishes it happens all the time. When a new sheriff takes over you want a new look so the people realize there will be changes and improvements,” he said.
Smith said there was one other clear reason to change all the decals and signs that were currently in existence for every department.
“They all have Jack Strain’s name on them so that was one reason we had to change them,” he said. “But I also wanted to change our badges so they will all have a number now and clearly identify everyone. When you meet with a deputy you can get his badge number and know exactly who you are dealing with, something that wasn’t the case in the past.”
Smith said another big change will be the number of patrol units on the streets, especially south of I-12 on the west side of the parish, where he said he heard a lot of complaints.
“I walked the subdivisions there during the campaign and was told people didn’t see patrol cars much,” he said. “We will open a new Patrol Division so there is a station right in that vicinity, especially to improve response times for emergencies.”
Smith has had a total volunteer unit of supporters who have helped him for the past five months since he began his transition work on January 1. After a two-hour meeting with Strain at the start of the year, which he described as “good,” he was ready to begin the work for the change in leadership.
That began with a review of each division in the Sheriff’s Office, with Smith’s volunteer help meeting with top ranking members of each division that included the jail, civil department, records, property and sales tax collection, patrol divisions, investigations, training, K-9, SWAT team, dive team, the crime lab and the budget.
“There is a lot to review so we started by trying to understand exactly how every department was being run and if there was room for improvement,” Smith explained.
The current chief at the Slidell Police Department said his staff went into the meetings with top ranking staff for each division looking for one key thing: “Is there anything broken that we need to fix?”
Smith said his overall reaction to the entire report from all the divisions is that “the Sheriff’s Office is being operated in an adequate way,” he said, “but there is always room for improvement.”
His biggest areas of concern are with the work release program and the jail.
Smith plans to return the work release program to an in-house program. After criticism came out over a year ago about the work release program Strain shut down the work on the west side of the parish, while continuing an agreement he had with businessman Alan Tingle, who operated the program in the Slidell area.
Smith said he wants to be in charge of the work release program.
“I intend to take it over and run it in-house. If I’m responsible for this then I need to have my staff be in charge,” he said.
His second big concern was what he called “a lot of criticism of the jail that I heard during the campaign. A lot of inmate relatives said the people who were incarcerated didn’t always get their medicine each day and weren’t treated properly.
“I want to protect the rights of the inmates, and the guards,” he said. “I don’t think it has been mismanaged, but things can always get better and we plan to do that.”
Smith said he also plans to create a Crisis Intervention Team that will be sent away for special training on how to handle calls involving individuals who may be dealing with mental illnesses, homelessness or substance abuse problems.
“We will have deputies who know how to handle those people, rather than putting them in jail,” he said. “We will have staff members trained who can train those here, without having to send everyone away for special training.”
Smith has announced he plans to keep Fred Oswald on staff as a Chief Deputy, the number two ranking position in the department to the sheriff. Currently, Strain has two chief deputies with Brian Trainor also having that position. Trainor is still drawing that salary in his role, according to Public Information Officer Capt. George Bonnett, although Smith said he did not plan to have more than one chief deputy.
Smith announced he has hired three deputy chiefs, the third ranking position in the department, with two coming from outside of the Sheriff’s Office.
Danny Culpepper was a major on staff and was promoted to deputy chief, while Tiffany Carasco and Jeff Boehm were also hired as deputy chiefs. Carasco comes from the Slidell Police Department where she was head of Information Systems, while Boehm previously worked with the U.S. Marshals Service and has 30 years of experience in law enforcement.
Former Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chiefs David Hall and Joe Jarrell have left the department.