I have to respectfully disagree with Kevin Reeves.
Col. Reeves, the Louisiana State Police (LSP) Superintendent, penned a LETTER to the editor of the Baton Rouge Advocate today (Friday, Aug. 31) in which he questioned the appropriateness and purpose of the paper’s continued reporting of what he referred to as an “incident” that occurred “over 20 months ago.”
The “incident,” of course, was that ill-advised road trip by four troopers to a San Diego convention—in and LSP vehicle—by way of the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam and Las Vegas, which proved to be the tipping point that brought the career of Reeves’s predecessor, Mike Edmonson, already rocked with a succession of scandals, to an abrupt end.
Reeves, who by all accounts, has demonstrated his determination to set LSP back on course and to restore its image, said it is time for The Advocate (and LouisianaVoice, I assume, though we were not mentioned in his letter) to “move forward” and to pull back on its negative coverage.
I’m certain that Col. Reeves needs no reminder that it was the State Police Commission (the LSP equivalent of the State Civil Service Commission) that kept the issue alive by its interminable foot-dragging in its investigation of the trip.
Repeated attempts by retired State Police Lt. Leon “Bucky” Millet of Lake Arthur to prod the commission into a full-blown investigation of the trip, as well as several apparent violations of LSP regulations and state laws by the Louisiana State Troopers Association, were met by delays followed by yet more delays and postponements as the commissioners seemed determined to turn a blind eye to events occurring under their collective noses.
In the end, Reeves attempted to mete out appropriate punishment to the four troopers who pleaded ignorance of regulations and who said they were merely following the directives of Edmonson. (Ironically, such pleadings of ignorance never carry the day when a motorist is pulled over for a traffic violation.)
But again, it was the commission, in its resolve to tidy things over, that overturned Reeves’s punishment in a recent hearing held in Monroe. That, for good, bad, or indifferent, kept the story alive. When the head of Louisiana State Police is blocked from disciplining errant troopers for actions they well should have known were improper, that’s legitimate news and it should be reported.
First, it was Maya Lau who covered the State Police Commission. She was a quiet but effective reporter and did an excellent job until she left to go to work for the Los Angeles Times. She was succeeded by Jim Mustian who also held the commission accountable. Now he’s leaving for a job in New York with the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, yours truly is staying put. I’m not going anywhere and I will continue to report on all governmental wrongdoing, local or state.
For instance, there is still the pending matter involving State Trooper Eric Adams:
Louisiana Voice 
Keep up the great job of reporting
I think Col. Reeves may be pulling a play from his predecessor’s playbook in an effort to enhance morale.
P. S. I think everybody on the inside would just as soon we all forget that the State Police Commission even exists.
First, bring the entire LSP organization back under State Civil Service. A paramilitary organization such as the LSP can and often does operate outside of the law when not held accountable to independent scrutiny. This certainly became the case and continues to be the case with the LSP.
Second, as Aretha Franklin would admonish, if you want respect you have to earn it. Respect can’t be demanded. Fear can be demanded but not respect.
Lastly, there are still far too many rotten apples at all levels of the LSP barrel that must be purged. With them in place the whole LSP organization remains tainted. Just to name two, troop commanders in Lake Charles and Monroe must be replaced.
So Colonel Reeves, you inherited a mess but you did so with your eyes open. You knew it was a mess. And you knew that to right the ship you had to make drastic changes. You haven’t done that. Until you do so, you deserve and should expect continued criticism. So do the job you were hired to do.
The one in Monroe has only been on the job as troop commander for a little over a month!
Bud Daniels, you are correct. The troop commander he is referring to, according to what I’ve heard through our LSP retiree group “was forced out, or asked to retire”, and was replaced about two months ago with a good man.
Although, I think Col. Kevin Reeves, for the most part, is a decent man, he rose up through the ranks, prior to my retirement, the fastest of any trooper during my long career as a trooper with the LSP.
Over all those years I’d, on occasion, dine at the LSP cafeteria, on the grounds of the Academy, and not one time over the course of all those years did I enter the cafeteria, that Col. Reeves mother, and dad were not seated at, or near the entrance.
They were observed politicking ever person of power, including the brass at LSP on Kevin Reeves’s behalf. I don’t guess there’s anything wrong with that, and in the end it worked well for them, but it was a longtime standing inside joke, among all us road troopers, that Kevin’s mom, and dad had become the “Wal-Mart Greeters of the LSP Cafeteria”.
I will say this, simply because it’s the truth, Col. Reeves owes all of his “fast-tracked” promotions to retired LSP Col. Mike Edmonson. It was under Col. Edmonson’s Administration that Col. Reeves was “fast-tracked” from road trooper, to Major at the speed of light.
While Col. Reeves was a road trooper at Troop-F, he was allowed to work his patrol hours around his college schedule at Louisiana Tech, and made out his own work schedule, to fit his college degree program.
According to trooper friends of mine that worked out at Troop-F, this preferential treatment caused a lot of hard feelings, because other road troopers asked if they could also attend college, and work their patrol hours in when they had time, and they were all denied this opportunity.
Is Col. Kevin Reeves a “fair-haired boy” within the ranks of LSP ? I’ll let you, the readers make that call.
Col. Reeves was in the clique big time with Col. Edmonson, and was tight enough with him, that he received every promotion that came open during Edmonson’s tenure that Reeves needed to further his career.
Col. Reeves was the only trooper I was ever aware of in the history of the LSP, that was allowed to complete college, and pick and choose his patrol schedule around his education.
Obviously he earned a pretty good education out at Louisiana Tech, because when Edmonson’s kingdom began to implode, Col. Reeves was smart enough to lurk in the shadows, distance himself from Edmonson, and play his political cards close-to-the-vest.
Although I don’t know this to be factual, but knowing the internal workings of the LSP as I do, I’ll always believe that Col. Edmonson, with his political connections in Baton Rouge and across the State, assisted Col. Reeves in a big way to becoming his successor. Edmonson is no fool, he knew what was coming down, and had to make sure his successor, was a person that was indebted to him, and would provide him internal protection from Felony Prosecution at the State level.
Will Col. Reeves authorize a full blown LSP investigate of Col. Edmonson for the numerous crimes he committed ? That will never happen on the State level, Col. Reeves owes Edmonson his position of Command, his LSP liberal patrol schedule to attain his college degree, and his “good-ole-boy” lightning-fast promotions.
Is Col. Reeves a good man ? Although I’ve meet him, and worked with him on a few occasions, I don’t know him well enough to make that call. I will say this, he’s a typical Louisiana insider, that’s bright, and knows how to play the game.
Only time will tell, but short of the feds running an investigation on Edmonson, he’ll walk away clean, laughing all the way to the bank with all of the money he stole from the taxpaying citizens of the state while employed as a trooper, and also his staggering retirement check the taxpayers deposit in his bank account each month.
His State Police retirement would have been even more lucrative had Louisiana Voice not picked up the fraudulent scam that was attempted to be pushed through on a last minute bill.
Plus, Edmonson still holds a Commission as a Louisiana State Police Trooper, and carries a State Police badge.
Has anything changed at LSP HQ in Baton Rouge ? Nothing but the name on the Colonels door.
Speaking as a retired trooper with decades of police service, there is only one way to clean up the Louisiana State Police, and that is to change the Law, where the Governor could appoint someone from outside the ranks of LSP as Superintendent. This one change alone could go a long way in breaking up the “inside track, good-ole-boy” program that has been in place since the conception of the Department. Louisiana State Police needs a blood transfusion, and that can only happen by appointing an outsider that’s highly qualified to head the Department.
After all, this is Louisiana, a State where corruption is a professional sport, and those who are skillful at it rise to the top.
You’d think the taxpayers would wise up to this mess, and vote this useless bunch of crooks out of office, but as always, our state continues to “let the fat man do the dancing, while the poor man pays the band”..
Retired LSP: You should write a guest column. Very few people have your insider’s view of anything.
In all the claims and counter claims something important is missing. What address did the scammer use on the 1040 and other documents sent to the IRS. If the check was mailed, what was that address; and if direct deposit whose account was used and what bank handled the transaction.
Not absolutely certain, but believe that the technical types did not do the simplest thing; select the email system option to VIEW MESSAGE HEADERS AND RAW SOURCE on the phishing emails. This information is critical since it is a roadmap showing message origination and each ISP / location the message traveled through. Note the marked lines <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<. Those numbers in parentheses are Internet Protocol ID Numbers; UNIQUE TO EACH ACCOUNT. It is very similar to a phone number.
This is an example but without LV's message details.
Return-Path:
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Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2018 18:43:44 +0000
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From: Louisiana Voice
Subject: [New post] State Police Supt. Kevin Reeves says enough with the negative coverage of LSP: We respectfully disagree
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I will be the first to admit, if it wasn’t for you and Louisiana Voice, NONE of us would know what shenanigans these clowns WE as citizens of Louisiana put into office are doing behind our backs. THANK YOU FOR ALL THE HARD WORK. Keep it coming.😁👍
You know they are corrupt when they don’t want the publicity.
The Nuremburg defense was found to be no defense at all decades ago. “Just following orders” is no excuse for wrongdoing – especially when you know it’s wrong and you would actually be in a position to arrest people suspected of doing the same wrong thing you are excusing by asserting that it’s not wrong if the boss says breaking the law is alright with him.
Col. Reeves was understandably stung when his very appropriate disciplinary measures meted out to the wrongdoers were overruled by the wrongheaded commission. But he should know that the most effective and fastest-acting antidote to public payroll and travel expense fraud is sunshine.
As a retiree I must say not all the Troopers are corrupt. But as mentioned,Rotten apples continue to contaminate the basket. Until Colonel Reeves addresses this these stories will continue to surtace. There are several Commanders and Internal Affairs folks that were part of Edmonsons clique that still prevent the agency from moving forward.
Great Article Tom!
Tarnished Badge, with your being retired LSP, you know as well as I do that the majority of LSP troopers are all honest, truthful, hardworking men, and women, but over the course of my career I observed that there was an inter-circle group of “good-ole-boys” in the Department that could do almost anything and get away with it.
I was a road trooper years ago when then, Lt. Mike Edmonson was working security when the Pope came to New Orleans.
Edmonson claimed all of the his, and his security units cost of motel rooms, meals, ect. on his State Police expense account and was refunded this large amount of money by the State after the detail.
Later, it was brought to the attention of the State Police, that the Roman Catholic Church had, in fact, paid all the expenses incurred by Edmonson, and his security unit of troopers, and that he willfully, and intentionally falsified his expense account, defrauding the State of Louisiana, out of a substantially large sum of money, I don’t recall the exact amount, but it was a lot of money back then when you considered the salary that we troopers lived on.
For his violation of felony fraud, Edmonson was disciplined by the State Police with his punishment being busted from the rank of Lieutenant, back to Sergeant, and was forced to pay the money back.
The amazing thing here was, before the dust of this discipline measure had settled, Edmonson was promoted back to Lieutenant.
Had the average citizen committed such a crime, they would have been charge with felony fraud, tried, jailed, and fined.
Edmonson’s deep connections out at LSU, his heavyweight, insider political connections over at the State Capital, somehow trumped his criminal violation of State Law, and his inside crony connections propelled him to becoming the “Golden Boy” of State Police, put him on the fast-track for promotions, and years later sat him in the “Top Cop’s” seat, as the Superintendent of the Louisiana State Police.
Although the Department kept this misdeed hushed, the news still trickled out threw the trenches of us lowly road troopers.
I don’t remember all of the details about Edmonson’s expense account scam, that’s been years ago now, and I’m an old man, but this was my first observation of how there were a few members of the Department that many of us road troopers called the “untouchables”.
Yes, at first it was somewhat disappointing when we realized that there were a select few within the ranks of the Department, that could get by with just about anything, and were unfairly promoted ahead of honorable troopers, who had much higher job performance ratings.
As the years rolled by, I simply accepted the fact that there were a “special few” within the Department that were above our State Police Policy and Procedure.
Of all of the acts of wrong doing that came out on Col. Edmonson at the end of his career, the one that really stood out to me, and painted the best portrait of this man, while giving us a front row seat of who he really was, is his having his State Police uniforms, and all of his families clothing, transported by an “on duty road trooper” over to the Governor’s Mansion, having them dry cleaned by the Governor’s house staff, and then claiming that he had paid for the dry cleaning of his uniforms out of his on pocket, on his monthly expense report.
Now here’s a guy that would falsified his monthly expense report to receive a measly six dollars per day uniform allowance.
I don’t even know of any common thieves, that would put forth that much effort for a few pieces of change.
If you take a just a moment, and think about it, this effort by Edmonson, to steal a few coins, takes the ole saying that “he’d take the dimes off a dead man’s eyes” to a whole different level.
In my long career as a Louisiana State trooper, I rolled a patrol car over a million miles down dark, lonely highways, and spent over 48,000 hours on patrol duty, and I thought I’d seen it all, but I’ll have to say, “the six dollars per day, uniform allowance fraud scam” that Col. Edmonson pulled off, out of his desperation for a few measly dollars tops them all.
I can only hope that the State Police gains the honor, and integrity it deserves, we’ve had trooper that have died protecting the lives of the citizens of Louisiana, and many other’s who have been severely in the line of duty.
I know for a fact, that the overwhelming majority of the men, and women that wear the uniform of the Louisiana State Police, that arrest the drunks, work the car crashes, and stand out on the edge of that “thin blue line” are the very best in Law Enforcement.
What has caused the scandals in recent years within the Department, and were it’s all gone wrong, is that the same small monopoly of people, continue to control the upper levels of management, at LSP HQ.
There’s entirely to much cronyism that radiates out of LSP Baton Rouge H.Q., and across the entire state. All upper management promotions are generally made simply on ones political connections, and cronyism, and not on job performants. That’s the major problem here. I’m not insinuating that there are no promotions made based on job performance, because there are a few, but in my observation over a long career there I saw very little of that.
If the State of Louisiana seriously wanted to fix the broken system at the Louisiana State Police, the House, and Senate would have to vote to change the State Statue, and pass a new law allowing the Governor the option to appoint a highly qualified outsider as the Superintendent.
As it stands now, the Governor only has the option to appoint someone from the ranks of State Police, and the circle continues on. The problem could be fixed, but it wouldn’t be easy because the roots of cronyism run very deep within the organization.
There would be a lot of long faces, because majority of the upper management positions would have to be replace with new people.
The only way to really repair the damage at LSP, is by a total transfusion, a fresh start, and that will only come by appointing someone from outside the agency, and someone above control by the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association. We’ll never see it in our lifetimes, but I honestly think it would get the Department back on the right track, the only problem would be finding the right man for the job.
Truth is, we need a total overhaul of Government here in our Great State. We have resources like no other State in the country, and in a recent national survey, we came in DEAD LAST in EVERY CATEGORY, even coming in behind Arkansas, and Mississippi. Obviously “the lights are own, but there’s nobody home” in our buildings of leadership in Baton Rouge.
Surely, there’s some qualified people that we could elect to turn our State around. Come on folk’s, turn out and vote, get involved, run for public office.
I know we can do better that this if we’d all do our part………………………….
Tom, great article and I agree with you, Col Reeves and Mr. Winham. Jindal and the Rep. controlled legislature destroyed our Civil Service so putting the LSP under the Civil Service is problematical. Respectfully, getting an outsider as Commander would further destroy morale. Watching the funerals of Aretha and Sen McCain, let’s all relax, evaluate, and “ain’t nothing gonna destroy my faith” love always ron thompson
I agree. Keep the “sun shining’ on the problem until it is solved.
How about this?
https://www.newsweek.com/louisiana-state-police-circulated-fake-antifa-members-list-taken-neo-nazi-1101268
I wonder how many of us are suspected members of Antifa – something I am not convinced even exists as an organized group? Note the sources of the list allegedly compiled by State Police. These apparently are organized groups.
Dear Retired LSP,
I take exception to your characterization of Colonel Reeves’ parents, Billy and Elsie, as his own personal lobbyists. And too, you are besmirching the memory of his mother who departed this life June 26, 2011. The Colonel could not have had two better, more honest, more caring parents. And, I can assure you also that neither Mr. Billy nor Mrs. Elsie came to the LSP cafeteria for any other reason than to eat an agreeable meal. I find your statement ill-conceived and certainly misguided.
At that time, the Colonel was the commander at Troop F and it is not in his nature to connive and back-stab his way to the top of LSP, as I have witnessed others do with precision. Furthermore, I’ve eaten at the LSP cafeteria for many years, like you, as a trooper, sergeant, lieutenant, captain and major. I had no one lobbying for me to obtain rank and neither did Colonel Reeves.
DeWayne White, LSP (major Ret.); former BRPD chief of police