VILLE PLATTE POLICE CHIEF SPEAKS AT ROTARY CLUB

APRIL 5, 2016

     Ville Platte Chief of Police Neil Lartigue was the guest speaker at today’s (Tuesday’s) meeting of the Rotary Club of Ville Platte.

      Chief Lartigue said the crime rate is down in the city thanks to a large part because of having more police officers on the street. The chief said the mayor and city council is allowing the police more overtime to have more a police presence. In high crime areas, the department has begun a foot patrol unit.

     The police department is having a difficult time getting recruits to pass a psychological evaluation. On average, only one in six police recruits are passing the insurance required exam.

     Despite cuts to the Dare drug education program in schools, the police chief said he is planning to keep the Dare program being taught in our local schools. He said “DARE is an effective program and works well.”

     He said some of his personnel is actively involved in community projects such as Cops for A Cure, Relay for Life and an annual School Supply Drive for under privileged youth in the community.

     He shared the following statistics for the year 2015: 7057 calls, 457 citations, 706 arrests, 167 felony arrests and the police department worked 541 traffic accidents.

    Chief Lartigue was the special guest of Rotarian Ronnie Landreneau.

    In other Rotary news, there will be a clean up at the Heritage Park on April 23 along with the Sacred Heart Interact Club;

    Also, it was announced there was an open house at Cameron Plant today with the unveiling of a new sign reflecting the new owner of Cameron.  The new sign says “Cameron, a Schlumberger Company”. Officials from Schlumberger were at the Ville Platte plant today (Tuesday).