Louisiana Voice

There was a time when the New Orleans Police Department was considered one of the – if not the – most corrupt police departments in the nation. In fact, three individual New Orleans cops were ranked as the worst of the worst in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for their killing of 17-year-old James Brissette on the Danzinger bridge.

But over the past couple of years, that mantle seems to have been passed on to the Louisiana State Police (LSP), now with its third commander within a five-year span and with more internal problems than its leadership seems capable of handling.

Associated Press and one-time Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Jim Mustian summed the agency up in a SINGLE ARTICLE that, sadly, described a fraternity mentality of racism, abuse and nepotism.

And now, we have Jason Boyet, 42, of Ponchatoula, a former Trooper of the Year, of all things, being sentenced to 210 months (17 ½ years) in federal prison for the distribution of kiddie porn, specifically images of sexual exploitation (child rape) of children as young as 3.

Can it possibly get any worse than that?

We have troopers beating and killing black motorists, troopers having sex in their patrol cars, troopers working second jobs while supposedly on duty, troopers taking underage women into casino (and having to pay a fine for their trouble) and then getting promoted to troop commanders, troopers abusing drugs on duty, troopers doing just about whatever they damned well please – and getting away with it.

And now this.

These were just photos he downloaded from the Internet; they’re photos he took himself of a prepubescent girl with his iPhone between December 2019 and February 2020. And then he shared the photos in a chat room.

This story was so lurid that it was picked up by the NEW YORK POST. The official word of Boyet’s guilty plea was issued in a NEWS RELEASE by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans

Boyet was named Troop L’s Trooper of the Year in 2018.

Obviously, the entirety of LSP can’t be judged by this single act of depravity and LSP administrators can’t be held accountable for the deviant behavior of a single individual.

It would be understandable if this was an isolated incident. But it’s not. The stories that have come out of LSP over the past five seven years are disturbing and indicate an ugly trend toward a complete lack of accountability and responsibility. For that, LSP administration must take responsibility.

It’s time for someone in charge to initiate changes in the attitudes that have been allowed to permeate the agency. If they have to jerk a half-hitch in some upstart who thinks he’s invincible, so be it.

LSP has long set itself apart from the rest of Louisiana’s civil servants. It even has its own State Police Commission to serve as something of a civil service board especially for troopers. A good start would be to abolish the commission and bring state police into civil service like the rest of state employees. If state police ever deserved special treatment, that time has long passed and there is no logical reason to retain the commission.

The requirement that the State Police superintendent must come from within the ranks of Louisiana State Police is outdated and should be scrapped. The good old boy network needs shaking up by an outsider who will come in and revamp the nepotism and buddy system that has brought ruin on a one-time stellar agency.

And finally, the fealty to the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association must end. For too long, decisions ranging from appointments of LSP superintendents, promotions within LSP, and appointments to the LSP Academy itself have depended on the blessings of the sheriffs’ association. No one should have that much power.