July 3, 2025 • 42 mins
In this episode of Louisiana Unfiltered, Kiran Chawla sits down with Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Sheriff Gerald Sticker and his Public Information Officer Ashley Rodrigue to discuss the Amber Alert system and how it had a direct affect on a case in Tangipahoa Parish on June 13, 2024 incident where two girls were kidnapped following the tragic murder of their mother.
Chapters
02:10 Discussing the June 2024 Incident
05:39 The Importance of Timely Alerts
14:21 Learning from Tragedy
19:58 Balancing Public Awareness and Fatigue
27:25 The Role of Social Media in Alerts
36:45 Transparency and Community Trust
Local Sponsors for this episode include:
Neighbors Federal Credit Union:
Another Chance Bail Bonds:
Dudley DeBosier Injury Lawyers
Sound and Editing for this audio podcast by Envision Podcast Production:
Chapters
02:10 Discussing the June 2024 Incident
05:39 The Importance of Timely Alerts
14:21 Learning from Tragedy
19:58 Balancing Public Awareness and Fatigue
27:25 The Role of Social Media in Alerts
36:45 Transparency and Community Trust
Local Sponsors for this episode include:
Neighbors Federal Credit Union:
Another Chance Bail Bonds:
Dudley DeBosier Injury Lawyers
Sound and Editing for this audio podcast by Envision Podcast Production:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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It's an alert to your phone that immediately demands your attention,
(00:45):
news that a child is likely in harm's way and
your help is needed. We're talking about an Amber alert.
It's a system that appeared to work just right until
last year when a father found his own daughter killed
and his two granddaughters missing. The Tangapehoe Paris Sheriff's office
(01:08):
desperately worked to get an Amber alert out that the
two girls had been kidnapped. It was three hours later
that the alert finally went out on cell phones. In
the end, one of the little girls was found dead
in Jackson, Mississippi, while the other girl was found alive.
(01:29):
But how long is too long? It was a subject
unfiltered with Kiaran dug Into deep last year. Why did
it take three hours for an alert to go out.
In fact, it was so long that the Sheriff's office
refused to wait and put out their own media release
saying the girls were likely in harm's wighing. A year
(01:53):
later and a new administration now, the Tanchapehoe Parish Sheriff,
Gerald Sticker says his men and women are trained on
how to trigger an amber alert and do it efficiently.
In fact, they just had a scare a few weeks ago.
Thankfully the child was asleep in his bed, but the
(02:15):
trial run helped the Sheriff's offist realize they now have
their ducks in a row. I'm Karen Challa and this
is Louisiana Unfiltered. Welcome back guys. This week we are
(02:40):
joined by the Tangipahoe Paris Sheriff as well as his
public information officer. Guys, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Good morning to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So I want to talk about the amber alert system
and what has kind of changed now and to our viewership,
to our listeners, let's kind of back you guys up.
This was June the thirteenth, twenty twenty four, and it's
very important to stress that the sheriff Gerald Sticker was
(03:11):
not in office yet. He was voted in correct Sheriff,
That's correct. You were voted, but you did not officially
take office until July the first, that is correct. So
a lot of the I'm not gonna say a lot,
but what all kind of brought this to light? You
guys weren't here yet. It was the past administration. So
this isn't so much a bashing. It's more of talking
(03:34):
about what all improvements have been made. I will tell
you guys that we did a very deep dive last
year and we broke it down by minute, and back
then the previous administration talked about how there was a lapse,
a lapse in the sense of I guess there are
certain requirements which you guys probably know that we'll get
you guys to talk about that, but requirements that an
(03:57):
agency first must send to State Police, and then State
Police comes back and says yes or no to the
Amber alert. I guess let's start there, walk us through
that process now.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
So yeah, just you know, back up, I hadn't taken
office yet, but obviously I'm I'm watching the news like
everyone else, and uh, you know when that when that
case broke and and then the fallout in the aftermath
of it with you know, with the Amber alert. So
I already knew, you know, day one, that was gonna
have to be one of many priorities that that I undertook,
(04:32):
and we just looked at and so that's exactly what
we did, you know, we uh, we looked at that
Amber alert policy. There was a meeting with Colonel Hodges
from State Police and his command staff as well as
my new, uh new command staff, and we basically had
a round table and uh, you know, kind of talked about, uh,
the lapses that day and what we could do moving forward.
(04:56):
And so as a result of that, we we were
viewed our internal policy, our procedures and just made sure
that they were silent, they were sound, and then we
implemented a mandatory training for all of our dispatchers, all
of our detectives, a good bit of the patrol supervisors.
And so we've then made that training a yearly deal.
(05:20):
You know, it's one of those Obviously, this is a
horrible crime, you know, and again I don't ever talk
about this without extending my you know, continuan continuing condolences
to the Brunette family. It was just a horrible event,
but it's one of those low frequency, high impact events
where if you don't investigate these type of cases day
(05:42):
in and day out, which thank god we do not,
you have to make sure you have sound policy, you
have to make sure you stay trained up on it.
So that's been our biggest initiative is just to make
sure our policy is good, make sure our people are
trained up on it, and implement it. If ever that
call does come again.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And I guess let me back up. So for our listeners,
it was June thirteenth, twenty twenty four. Callie Brunette, a
mother of two, is founded in her trailer. Her dad
actually ended up finding her her car and both of
her girls are missing. So this was the reason that
the Tangipa Hope Aah shareff's office back then wanted an
(06:20):
Amber alert. But this is always the case. There's a
lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that you
can't release publicly to the media. You can't put out
every little detail just yet because the suspect might be watching.
So some of this information such as the LPRs the
license plate readers that callie stolen car was actually showing
(06:42):
up in Macomb, Mississippi, at this time now and I
don't know this as a reporter, but we didn't know
where the girls are. And I think the tange Pa
hope Ara share of the previous administration, they didn't even
know at this time where are the girls. So this
is where it kind of started that we got to
get an amber alert out. We've got to get an
amber alert out out and through our reporting we learned
(07:03):
that it was around ten fifteen in the morning. Is
when they started to try to say we got to
do something, we got to put it out to the masses.
And sadly, it took nearly three hours before that amber
alert ended up going out and the unfortunately the story
ended with one of the girls found dead. The other
little girl was found alive. They were found in Jackson, Mississippi,
(07:25):
about three hours away from here. And I know we've
kind of talked about this, but Cheerff, when you watched
all of this and the beginning of this came out
as a woman found dead, potential kidnapping, but then to
hear a little girl is found dead, to me as
(07:46):
a reporter, I think that's what hits the hardest. What
was going through.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
You, oh same, you know, just for any anybody. You know,
I'm a father, I'm a grandfather, and so you just
you know, you can't put your off and those those
grandparents you know, shoes. But it still is just horrendous.
Anything involving a child is just it's just it's the
(08:11):
tragedy of it's multiplied tenfold. And so you know, just
watching all this, you know, unfold and then looking back
on it, you know, hindsight obviously you know there was
a several hour lapse, and so that's why again it
was just it was paramount to us that we may
make sure that my administration that our detectives going forward,
(08:32):
you know, know the procedure, and that we're on the spot,
you know, and they're on the side of caution. And
so you know, basically when you know, when we have
a situation like that, the criteria for an Amber alert
is if if there's a victim or potential victim that
is seventeen years or younger, and you believe that they
are an imminent fear of injury or death that meets
(08:55):
the criteria and you have either obviously this the descriptive
information that for that juvenile and are the offending party
who they may be in the custody of and a
vehicle with specifics a license plate number, anything that's actionable
that you can put into the Amber Alert. So once
(09:17):
you have that criteria, you can submit that criteria to
Louisiana State Police through that Amber Alert program. You can
submit it online. Facts are an email and so once
you do one of those three things, then you follow
up with a physical phone call to a particular number
at Louisiana State Police to ensure that they received it.
(09:41):
But it's that leg work going in and I think
there may have been a phone call made to somebody
there before any of this transpired. And again, it's just
not the way the process works. If you have to
know the policy, you have to know the processes, and
you have to follow them.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Would you say you kind of said it that this
may have been something that was a first for tangent
of hope heres recently, a crime so heinous, and that
maybe a lot of people just weren't aware of how
the process works.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah, I mean it's speculative, but obviously there was a
lapse in time where this should have been done, should
have been done in a more timely fashion, And as
I said previously, it's one of those low frequency, high
impact events. You know, this doesn't happen every day, thank goodness,
but when it does, you have to know how to respond.
(10:35):
And so that's why again, you know, having good policy
and up to date training that's ongoing is very important
to have an adequate response to situations like this.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So you've basically made it to where majority of your
upper staff must know the policies and procedures and what
must be done if and when an AMBER alert is needed.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
That's correct.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
So we had a meeting sometime mid July with the
State Police command staff. By mid August, Louisiana State Police
and the Fusion Center came down to the Chandri Pair
Sheriff's office and they hosted a training at our Sheriff's office.
And so we're closing in. I was last August that
(11:19):
we're closing in on August, and I've already given my
directive to the training coordinator to make sure that training
gets back on the books again this year.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Okay, and I guess let me fill in the listeners. So,
like you said, a phone call was made, they filled
out the form. Tinaposhers Office assumes that they've done it correctly.
They send it off to State Police, and we've got
all of this. It's a very in depth article posted
to Unfiltered and we'll link it into this podcast as well.
(11:49):
But there's screen grabs even showing hey, this is the
phone calls that we're making. But and this is where
I will still say I don't know what actually happened.
State Police came back and said, well, you didn't fill
out the form properly, and CHANGI is saying, you never
told us we didn't fill it out properly. As far
as we know, we filled it out properly. There was
(12:10):
this lapse going back and forth of well, this is
not going to qualify as an amber alert. It's a
level to endangerment. What does that mean. We'll send it
out to the media, but it's not going to go
out on your phone as the big Amber alert child missing.
And in between all of this, the TANGIPAAE Pear Sheriff's
office said, We're not dealing with this. I'm going to
go ahead and put out a press release on my own.
(12:32):
I'm not waiting on State police. I'm doing it. So
they put it out and so the media actually blasted
out that an amber alert's been issued before the actual
actual Amber alert came out, hence this kind of digging
as to what all happened. And I don't know if
you guys can respond to that. And even Ashley Ashley
(12:53):
is actually a former reporter. She used to work here
in Baton Rouge before going to New Orleans and now
she's over on the law enforcement side helping for public
information and media. From both of y'all's perspective, I guess
watching all this happen in real time, and now, even
knowing what all was going on, what do you think
(13:15):
of it? Now?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Sure, you know, you know, outside looking in like everyone
else at the time.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You know, you saw that battle going on.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Between you know, between state police and the Sheriff's office.
And I don't know if I have a really concrete
answer as to what transpired other than.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
On our part, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Things weren't done in a timely fashion. And as I
said before, there has to be certain actionable information. We
just can't put, you know, a gray sedan, you know,
or we just can't put half baked information out that
may or may not be accurate and put some innocent
member of our traveling public and danger because they're getting
(13:58):
stopped by the police that on a fellow the traffic stops.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So and I.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Understand state police position when it comes to an amber alert.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
It's got to be.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
What we reasonably reasonably believe is the accurate information. If
there's not enough information, then that should have been you know,
communicated back. There should have been two points of contact,
and I don't know what number they called it State
Police at the time, but even on their website it
has a particular number that you contact to follow up.
So there should be a point of contact if there
(14:27):
is a problem to say you need to fill out
line too, or you omitted this. And so because I
think at the end of the day, whether it be
State Police, Shaff's Office, any host of agencies that assisted
during that time, you know, everybody wants the recovery of
those of those babies, and it's just getting past the
bureaucracy to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
And maybe this wouldn't be such a topic if one
of the girls wasn't found dead. I think that's why
it ended up becoming a question of could an earlier
ambroller have maybe saved the life of the little girl.
And I don't know if we were ever able to
determine what time the child died because one of the
(15:11):
kids was found dead in Jackson, Mississippi, the other was
found alive. Asha, I want to go back to you,
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Speaker 4 (16:55):
From a reporter perspective, I can say I absolutely understand
the picks not understanding a situation. If you know you
have missing children, put their pictures out, put their information out,
let's start looking for them. I didn't make the Red
the Amber alert process, so I don't know. And your
explanation of it is very helpful to explain that it
is not helpful to just put a generic vehicle out there,
(17:18):
because then you know law enforcement is pulling over every
vehicle just like that, or people might be targeting any
vehicle just like that, and there's a need to have
more specific details. To me, whatever you call it doesn't
matter to me as a former reporter. The information should
be out there. And I was mentioning to you previously
that we had a little bit of a close call
(17:40):
situation last week where I knew I wasn't waiting for anybody,
but I also knew to be specific about my wording
because I was not the authority on putting an Amber
alert out. But I needed to impress upon people this
is not a missing child, this is not a runaway.
This is a child who was taken. So in that situation,
(18:04):
as soon as the call came in, I kicked into
the practice that we had from that training. And like
the sheriff mentioned, there's multiple people in multiple divisions that
are in that training to be aware of what each
of us are supposed to be doing so we can partner.
Another really important thing that hasn't has been said, but
(18:26):
hasn't been pointed out is the partnerships. That room that
we were in in July with state police, there were
probably fifteen to twenty people in there, and the most
important thing there was this is this person's face that
goes with this name, This is what they do. This
is who you need to talk to when this happens
to make those relationships. So in this instance, I see
(18:47):
what happens, I run down the hall to Juvenile and
I say, hey, you know, no one was there. Of course,
I'm going in there to say, hey, y'all need me
to start working on something. No one's in there because
they've already all run out. So I just go to
my office and I start making my press release, my
graphics as I'm watching the email chain go and I'm
getting the pictures and I'm getting the details and I'm
(19:08):
doing it, getting it ready. And within thirty five minutes,
I'm sitting there with everything ready to go, just waiting
for our people to tell me where they're at on
the Amber alert process.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
And thirty five minutes from getting the information to being ready.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Yes, And I'm not getting in anybody's you know, I'm
not calling anybody. I'm just I'm ready and I'm just
waiting for them to do their part. They call me
and say, listen, I've got the form in front of
me filled out with everything that I've got and I'm
about to send it. I said, okay, when we hang up,
I'm going to call my counterpart at State Police to
(19:44):
let them know this is what I've got. And she said,
we don't know who's in that car, And I said,
I understand. You tell me you're ready, I'm ready, hang
up the phone, get on with state police, having that
conversation with pous book affairs, filling them in on what
I have and what I have ready, and then pop
(20:04):
sentence says we got them. Okay, great, I'll ask questions later,
Thank you so much, and then it was kind of
like a decompression for the rest of the day. But
the child, yep, found and fine, because we did not
know who was in the vehicle that was thought that
he got into, and this was a child with autism,
(20:27):
so we knew that there was an elevated, you know,
difference in the way a decision he would have made.
So it turns out that certainly don't want to knock
a very over vigilant and.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Careful bus driver.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
But they thought they noticed that this child got into
this vehicle that was passing at the same time he
got off the bus, because as soon as the car
passed or something to that effect, the child was no
longer seen. So it turned out he was asleep in
his bed for nap time after his summer school raph
But not the point. The point is the process that
was practice and put into place in August of last
(21:06):
year worked beautifully when it almost needed to just three
weeks ago, and we're just about to have our next
annual training. That's how important this is for the people
of that Sheriff's office, those were who were involved before
and who are just coming into it like myself. Now,
you know, it's not like it wasn't ever important. Children,
the situation is completely critical. But you know, we always
(21:28):
in the reporter world know that sometimes it takes a
tragic story for people to learn something, and they have
learned it and it is a great process. It's a
great relationship that we have right now. But again I
do even if it happens to someone else. Again, I
do understand the public's lack of grasping the levels and
(21:50):
the requirements of those levels. But again, we don't make
those rules. All we know is all I know is
I am not waiting for someone else. I am doing
what I've got to do. I'm going to reach out
to the partners around it, and I'm gonna start pushing
it as much as I can, you know, short of
state police doing what they can do to elevate it further.
And that's just how I feel about it from from
(22:12):
a mom's perspective from a former reporters perspective, and now
on that that p IO front.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
And sheriff, I guess talk to us about So you unfortunately,
slash fortunately kind of got a dry run of going
through the motions and it wasn't just you. Your entire staff
looks like, got it right?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Oh absolutely?
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Look, you know, I'm you know, I'm maybe the head
of the office, but it's the men and women that
you know, everything that I've done year one, July one
is coming up on one year in office, and so
everything that I've that I've tried to do inside the
walls of the Sheriff's office has been employee centric, from
trying to get their their salaries up to a little
(22:57):
wage as best I can to, to ongoing training to
equipping them because if if they if they're not properly
trained and equipped to do a good.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Job, then I'm not going to do a good job.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
And so you know, every emphasis, everything that I do
undertake is geared toward our employees so that they can
better serve our citizens when the time comes. And uh,
you know, we were fortunate and that's how you know,
ninety nine percent of these calls when we get a
missing child. It's just that I found them sleeping in
(23:30):
toy boxes in the back of their closets, you know.
I found them went to the you know, the next
door apartment because they thought they went into their apartment.
It's just and we're glad one of those in. But
everybody's blood pressure goes through the roof when we get
those type of calls, and was like, we're praying it's
not that one percent that's coming to visit us that day.
And so, you know, we live in a very very
(23:52):
big parish, a very rural parish, but.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
And we got a lot of ground to cover. But
that's why it's impaired of that.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
We work smart, and you know, our men and women
there at the Shriff's office, they're dedicated, they really are.
And so again that's my main emphasis is just educating
and training those deputies so they can so they can
perform at their highest level.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
How about the fact that you reduced the timing from
three hours last time to around thirty five minutes.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, no, I mean that's yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
I'll take it every day and all day on Sunday,
you know, So we're happy with that, and that's a
result of of the just that that training, you know,
and just making sure that you know, look, every operation
that we do, whether it's whether it's a homicide, whether
it's a special event at a festival, we always we
plan going into these type events. And then on the
(24:46):
backside of it, we also have an after action meeting
where we all sit down and say, Okay, what worked
and what didn't work, and and you know, there's no
everybody's rank comes off, and then we have you know,
honest discussions because we all have room for improvement. No
matter how good we do, there are still nuances that
(25:08):
could be tweaked to make it more efficient. But I'm
very happy that this number one turned out to be
a non event. But I'm also was equally happy that
we were that we answered the bell when it rang.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
So to either one of you guys. So let's clarify.
The thirty five minutes. Was that from knowing information to
having it to the Amber alert was ready to push,
or was that you guys getting all your ducks in
a row and being able to turn everything to state police.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
The thirty five minutes was from the time the call
came in that there was a child who is believed
to have gotten into a vehicle that shouldn't have and
did not know who was in that vehicle or where
it was going. To me being ready to hit send
on a news release and social media posts, and our
agency sending the filled out to officially call it a
(26:02):
an Amber alert request to state police.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
And so let me make sure I clarify this. State
Police is the only one who can send an Amber
alert in Louisiana, correct, correct? Okay, So we don't know
how long it would have taken for state Police to
receive that information and dissect it and officially put out
an Amber alert.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Correct, Okay, But the process was being followed this time,
as it pertains to this form going to this email
address or through this portal to a particular person with
the plan to then pick up the phone and call
and say did you receive this? We just sent this
at the same time as me on the phone with
the public affairs folks saying this is happening on the
operational front right now. We now need to talk about
(26:43):
this happening on the public affairs front right now. So
you'd have two arms working at the same time.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Okay, Well, and let's again, this is not a bashing.
It's kind of like you said it best that after
some an event like this happens, a big hurricane, even
in journalism, a big event. What did we do right?
What did we not do wrong? You almost have it's
constructed criticism, but you also have to have tough skin.
So this is not a bashing. I guess where there
are things that you guys learned that hey, they were
(27:10):
done wrong on our end. And when I say our,
I don't mean physically your people, but uh, the change
of Hope, pair of Sheriff's office, and again a lot
of it may have been we just didn't know the
proper process. So in our heads we're sitting there saying,
let me just call the top people at state Police
and hurry, hurry, hurry. But in reality, there was a
(27:32):
set process that needed to be followed. From everything I'm gathering,
that's what I'm understanding.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, And like I said, I can't speak on their behalf,
and there's, as understand it, pending litigation out there, so
I don't want to speak to the specifics of it.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
What they what they what they did or didn't do.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
You know, I just focused on July one, moving forward,
What were we going to do about it. And and
so we just made sure that we were were short
up on the law enforcement side to properly gather the information,
process it and then send it down the pipe to
(28:12):
state police. And you know, theoretically, you know, back a
couple a little bit, you know, when we send that email,
theoretically they get it right then. But we follow up
with that phone call just to say, you know, because
we all miss emails, you know, go look at your email,
make sure you have it. So I think you know
that process, you know, disco around this latest dry run,
(28:34):
if you will, we were we were teed up and
everything went seamless, and uh and we're.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Grateful for that.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Good good. I mean, I hate to say this, but
in norm way, I'm kind of glad you got got
the practice running. So well, let's let's talk about a
different issue. I don't I'm sure you guys have seen this.
There's so many times that if we're in Texas on VIC,
the phone is ding ding ding ding ding. And obviously
(29:04):
when a NAMB alert goes out, it's not just my phone,
it's every phone is going out. Oh, Fredericksburg, Houston, Dallas,
you can be anywhere and sometimes it's two three times
in a day. I'm not going to lie. I look
at the phone and I'm like, okay, another amb alert
and I put it back in my purse. But is
(29:26):
too much? Is there a fatigue if you do it
too much?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Like?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Is there a fine line? And I guess I want
to hear it from law enforcement. What Joel's perspectives are
that there were a lot of people back then saying,
who cares, get it out, get it out, get it out.
And like Ashley said, from a reporter's perspective, we can
understand that. From the public's perspective, we can understand it.
(29:52):
And in this situation it turned out to be the
worst case scenario that a child had died. But majority
of the times the person is you found. And it's
a fine line of do we hurry up and just
get it out and do kind of like that fatigue
that happens when it comes to Texas sending out too
many or do we simmer it down and only send
(30:12):
out a few so when it does go out, we're
grabbing that viewer's attention.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Sure, And you know, again, this is one of those
I'll say it again, low frequency, high impact events and
so I don't.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Unfortunately, it doesn't happen a lot, and so I think
that's why there's that lower tier, the level two missing endangered,
where they'll put out a text blast and and so yeah,
even there's a there's a process with that too in
certain criteria meets. But when it's your kid, you don't care.
You want the information out, yes, and especially if it
(30:45):
is in today's world. You know, we all we all
know that news moves at the speed of light, and
everybody's monitoring social media, and so the information is out there,
and and you know, I don't think you know, yeah,
there is a tendency to get tone death to it.
If if it's just blasted every day, every day it's
something new, it just becomes, you know, unfortunately, what's we
(31:10):
expect to.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
See and hear.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
But when it's community sensitive issue, and there's no more
of a community sensitive issue than a missing child, so
our a runaway we had, you know, we helped the
neighbor and perish with a with a runaway teenager yesterday
and that was another you know, that lower level correct
and he was found in tangible parish and safely, thank goodness.
So so yeah, just having that that lower level. And
(31:38):
so I don't think, you know, tone death or you know,
just people blowing it off will hopefully never become an issue,
just because everybody and their community and their neighborhood, they
want to make sure all their all their children are safe.
And so I think I think we're good on that point.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Ashley, same question.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
I mean, you definitely I struggle with, you know, the
concept of we have runaways, then you have missing and
you know, how do you elevate them to kind of
plan for the oh there's another one, you know, to
make them understand there is a difference to it. At
the same time too, you know, I never thought about
it the way he explained it, the way people are today.
(32:20):
If you put out something generic like we believe that
this child is in this vehicle and they don't know
who they're with, we need the public to look out
for this car. There are people in this society today
that will be calm vigilantes. We'll go looking for these
cars and will make bad choices that could result in
(32:41):
an unnecessary situation, injury, even death. And so I do
understand the concept of now literally in this conversation, whereas
before I maybe didn't of needing to be very specific
as much as possible to say what it is you're
looking for. However, I still don't see a reason to
(33:01):
not say something because you're missing a piece. In this
particular situation, we did not know who was driving that vehicle.
I don't believe that the elevation of that process should
have stopped because we don't know who's physically driving it.
If we know the kid, and we know the vehicle,
and we know the general direction it was headed, and
(33:23):
we're trying to do our part, if we can't see
the license plate, we don't know where it's going, but
we know the vehicle and where it was when he
got in it, I don't understand why that's not something
that we would like to try to put out as
a possibility. But then I do also get now you've
got a target on every vehicle like that right now,
(33:44):
really anywhere in the parishes that touch and how could
that turn out? You know, you also have a scenario
where he said, now you've got law enforcement trying to
look for that vehicle everywhere and pulling it over left
and right, and you don't know who's in those vehicles
and how they're feeling about whatever. I mean, we know
how things go these days. So it's really a fine
balance between between the I don't want to use this wording.
(34:06):
It's I don't want to say risk reward, but you
have to you have that fine balance about you know,
needing to have exact information, uh, to hit a certain level,
but that does not stop you, in my opinion, from
getting out what you can in whatever manner. So if
it is that we can elevate on a local front,
ask our partners around us to kind of elevate it
(34:26):
on a regional front, and then when we hit the
markers that are required on a statewide front with that
literal push, then that's fine.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
And Ashley, you said it best that you in today's
day and age. From everything you just said, that's the
advantage of social media in today's day and age. However,
social media can go very negative as well. That if
you guys law enforcement, the officials don't get the information
out first and correctly, things are going to spread and
they're going to spread like wildfire and it could be
(34:57):
incorrect information. So, and I'll even add this that as
a reporter, a lot of times what I do is
I pick up the phone, and I call the PIO
and I ask them, shoot me straight. Is this simply
a runaway because fifteen sixteen year olds do run away?
Or is this a more dire situation? Prime example, we
(35:19):
had that happen over in Browley, in West Baton Rouge Parish.
We think he was seventeen years old. And I asked,
point blank, I said, did this child run away? Because
we had the mom. The mom's begging us, help us,
help us, help us. But when a child runs away,
it doesn't matter to a mother if they ran away,
if they're in danger or whatever in their head. Rightfully,
(35:41):
so my child's gone. I don't care what you do.
Get my child back. We've got the mom saying something's wrong.
This isn't my child. There's no way he doesn't run away.
Called law enforcement and asked, point blank, do you suspect
something more serious here or do you think this is
just a runaway? Our staff, we don't trigger putting out
(36:02):
a missing person until I have word of we suspect
this one's not looking good. We don't go based on
a post that says, hey runaway. Now. Social media helps
because if that runaway child is seen, you just did
your job but from the media perspective, maybe I'm calling
it responsible journalism. And actually, you know, journalism is changing
(36:24):
left and right at this time as well because of
social media. But that was a long winded way of
sheriff bringing back that you've been in law enforcement. You said,
how long.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Since full time since nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Five, So times have changed.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Absolutely, Yeah, you know, we've we've come a long way
from the big chief pad and the number two pencil.
And you know, when we had.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
A you know, a runaway and we knew, you know,
what we did back then.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
You know, obviously we took the information to generate a
report and we you know, we call that information and
the dispatch and it went in to the National Crime
Information Center, to the state NCIC computer. And again, you know,
nine times out of ten, as soon as the dispatcher
took the you know, the time to fill out all
(37:13):
the field, submit it, get confirmation that was in there,
inevitably they would come back home. And we were grateful
for that, but we knew that. But every the point is,
every time we aired on the side of caution and
entered that juvenile's information into the computer, we went through
the process knowing and hoping that it was going to
(37:35):
be you know, a false alarm, that they were going
to get hungry and come home, or they were going
to turn up somewhere safe. And you know, countless times
we've done that, but countless times we still followed the
process of entering that information because the one time that
you don't is when it's gonna it's when it's going
to come back to haunt you. And so you know,
(37:56):
that's that's been my rule of thumb and pretty much
anything err on the side of caution. You got to
look at worst case and use good judgment and observation
that experience to make those sound decisions and judgment calls.
And when it comes to kids, every time you better
be air and on the.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Side of caution.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Absolutely anything else you'd like you both would like to add.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
No, we're just I mean, I would say that I'm
very confident and I believe that the public and tangible
parish should be confident too that the team at Tangiba
parishurf's office right now is going to get it done
when it's got to get done. They care, they know
what they're doing. They take their job seriously. It's not
a job it's it's a calling and I see it
(38:41):
every day. It's really refreshing, especially having been a reporter
before covering this agency under a different administration and being
in the building. I have all the confidence that if
it was my child, I know they're going to find them,
and they're going to find them safe and quickly.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Absolutely and surely first makes one year for you. So congratulations,
thank you. And I'll even add this, one of the
big things in today's day and age the public demands,
not asks for demands, is transparency and we have seen
so much. In fact, there are times all till Ashley
like stop stop sending releases. Can you go to sleep?
(39:20):
Because she is just NonStop. But we appreciate what you
guys are doing. And I think I can speak for
the public as well as from a reporter standpoint that
it's good to have that working relationship with you guys
to where we can pick up the phone and say, hey,
let's have a conversation what's really happening here? So thank
you guys.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Oh absolutely, no, and you know she is. She does
a job of three three individuals.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
At our shareff's office, and we are we're very fortunate
to have her and you know, and I've come a
long way through that process. When I first got in
the law enforcement, you know, there's kind of the old school,
you know, disdain for the media and all, because you know,
they only come into plane ashes and we land planes
every day, thousands of them, but you know, they only
come put a microphone in your face when when one
(40:06):
crash is on you.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
But you know, mature and in the profession over the
years and actually serving as a public information officer at
a previous agency that I was volun told to go
into that role. It's not something that I put in far,
but I was basically and instructed that I was going
to be the new PIO for the UH for that agency.
(40:29):
And and but there again they reinforced it. You know,
I got the opportunity to go to the State Police
for their forty hour training in another forty hour block
that was put on by a former national I think news.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Producer, and so I got it on both ends.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
And I got another ten week media course when I
opportunity to go to the FBI Academy.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
And so.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
It's a you know, it's a I won't call it
a necessary evil, but I've learned over the years that
you know, the media has a story to tell and
so it may as well be your story. And there's
at times when that plane crashes. There's no easy way
to eat a soup sandwich.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
You just have to eat it.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
But we strive every day to you know, to put
our best foot forward and to be transparent because you know,
the public needs to know what's going on. They're not
gullible enough to believe that everything's just rainbows and you know, corns, right,
and so we give it to them the good, the bad,
and the ugly, and it's good. That's what they'll always
get from me as sheriff.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Well, it's appreciated, and I think both of you guys
for coming on and talking to us. I'm happy to
see that there are improvements when it comes to the
Amber alert because who knows when it'll help the next person,
that's right, So thank you both. Then, to our listeners,
we appreciate you listening and as always, we will see
you on the next episode of Louisiana Unfiltered.
This episode is brought to you by Dudley Devosure injury lawyers,
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(00:21):
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It's an alert to your phone that immediately demands your attention,
(00:45):
news that a child is likely in harm's way and
your help is needed. We're talking about an Amber alert.
It's a system that appeared to work just right until
last year when a father found his own daughter killed
and his two granddaughters missing. The Tangapehoe Paris Sheriff's office
(01:08):
desperately worked to get an Amber alert out that the
two girls had been kidnapped. It was three hours later
that the alert finally went out on cell phones. In
the end, one of the little girls was found dead
in Jackson, Mississippi, while the other girl was found alive.
(01:29):
But how long is too long? It was a subject
unfiltered with Kiaran dug Into deep last year. Why did
it take three hours for an alert to go out.
In fact, it was so long that the Sheriff's office
refused to wait and put out their own media release
saying the girls were likely in harm's wighing. A year
(01:53):
later and a new administration now, the Tanchapehoe Parish Sheriff,
Gerald Sticker says his men and women are trained on
how to trigger an amber alert and do it efficiently.
In fact, they just had a scare a few weeks ago.
Thankfully the child was asleep in his bed, but the
(02:15):
trial run helped the Sheriff's offist realize they now have
their ducks in a row. I'm Karen Challa and this
is Louisiana Unfiltered. Welcome back guys. This week we are
(02:40):
joined by the Tangipahoe Paris Sheriff as well as his
public information officer. Guys, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Good morning to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So I want to talk about the amber alert system
and what has kind of changed now and to our viewership,
to our listeners, let's kind of back you guys up.
This was June the thirteenth, twenty twenty four, and it's
very important to stress that the sheriff Gerald Sticker was
(03:11):
not in office yet. He was voted in correct Sheriff,
That's correct. You were voted, but you did not officially
take office until July the first, that is correct. So
a lot of the I'm not gonna say a lot,
but what all kind of brought this to light? You
guys weren't here yet. It was the past administration. So
this isn't so much a bashing. It's more of talking
(03:34):
about what all improvements have been made. I will tell
you guys that we did a very deep dive last
year and we broke it down by minute, and back
then the previous administration talked about how there was a lapse,
a lapse in the sense of I guess there are
certain requirements which you guys probably know that we'll get
you guys to talk about that, but requirements that an
(03:57):
agency first must send to State Police, and then State
Police comes back and says yes or no to the
Amber alert. I guess let's start there, walk us through
that process now.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
So yeah, just you know, back up, I hadn't taken
office yet, but obviously I'm I'm watching the news like
everyone else, and uh, you know when that when that
case broke and and then the fallout in the aftermath
of it with you know, with the Amber alert. So
I already knew, you know, day one, that was gonna
have to be one of many priorities that that I undertook,
(04:32):
and we just looked at and so that's exactly what
we did, you know, we uh, we looked at that
Amber alert policy. There was a meeting with Colonel Hodges
from State Police and his command staff as well as
my new, uh new command staff, and we basically had
a round table and uh, you know, kind of talked about, uh,
the lapses that day and what we could do moving forward.
(04:56):
And so as a result of that, we we were
viewed our internal policy, our procedures and just made sure
that they were silent, they were sound, and then we
implemented a mandatory training for all of our dispatchers, all
of our detectives, a good bit of the patrol supervisors.
And so we've then made that training a yearly deal.
(05:20):
You know, it's one of those Obviously, this is a
horrible crime, you know, and again I don't ever talk
about this without extending my you know, continuan continuing condolences
to the Brunette family. It was just a horrible event,
but it's one of those low frequency, high impact events
where if you don't investigate these type of cases day
(05:42):
in and day out, which thank god we do not,
you have to make sure you have sound policy, you
have to make sure you stay trained up on it.
So that's been our biggest initiative is just to make
sure our policy is good, make sure our people are
trained up on it, and implement it. If ever that
call does come again.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
And I guess let me back up. So for our listeners,
it was June thirteenth, twenty twenty four. Callie Brunette, a
mother of two, is founded in her trailer. Her dad
actually ended up finding her her car and both of
her girls are missing. So this was the reason that
the Tangipa Hope Aah shareff's office back then wanted an
(06:20):
Amber alert. But this is always the case. There's a
lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that you
can't release publicly to the media. You can't put out
every little detail just yet because the suspect might be watching.
So some of this information such as the LPRs the
license plate readers that callie stolen car was actually showing
(06:42):
up in Macomb, Mississippi, at this time now and I
don't know this as a reporter, but we didn't know
where the girls are. And I think the tange Pa
hope Ara share of the previous administration, they didn't even
know at this time where are the girls. So this
is where it kind of started that we got to
get an amber alert out. We've got to get an
amber alert out out and through our reporting we learned
(07:03):
that it was around ten fifteen in the morning. Is
when they started to try to say we got to
do something, we got to put it out to the masses.
And sadly, it took nearly three hours before that amber
alert ended up going out and the unfortunately the story
ended with one of the girls found dead. The other
little girl was found alive. They were found in Jackson, Mississippi,
(07:25):
about three hours away from here. And I know we've
kind of talked about this, but Cheerff, when you watched
all of this and the beginning of this came out
as a woman found dead, potential kidnapping, but then to
hear a little girl is found dead, to me as
(07:46):
a reporter, I think that's what hits the hardest. What
was going through.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
You, oh same, you know, just for any anybody. You know,
I'm a father, I'm a grandfather, and so you just
you know, you can't put your off and those those
grandparents you know, shoes. But it still is just horrendous.
Anything involving a child is just it's just it's the
(08:11):
tragedy of it's multiplied tenfold. And so you know, just
watching all this, you know, unfold and then looking back
on it, you know, hindsight obviously you know there was
a several hour lapse, and so that's why again it
was just it was paramount to us that we may
make sure that my administration that our detectives going forward,
(08:32):
you know, know the procedure, and that we're on the spot,
you know, and they're on the side of caution. And
so you know, basically when you know, when we have
a situation like that, the criteria for an Amber alert
is if if there's a victim or potential victim that
is seventeen years or younger, and you believe that they
are an imminent fear of injury or death that meets
(08:55):
the criteria and you have either obviously this the descriptive
information that for that juvenile and are the offending party
who they may be in the custody of and a
vehicle with specifics a license plate number, anything that's actionable
that you can put into the Amber Alert. So once
(09:17):
you have that criteria, you can submit that criteria to
Louisiana State Police through that Amber Alert program. You can
submit it online. Facts are an email and so once
you do one of those three things, then you follow
up with a physical phone call to a particular number
at Louisiana State Police to ensure that they received it.
(09:41):
But it's that leg work going in and I think
there may have been a phone call made to somebody
there before any of this transpired. And again, it's just
not the way the process works. If you have to
know the policy, you have to know the processes, and
you have to follow them.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Would you say you kind of said it that this
may have been something that was a first for tangent
of hope heres recently, a crime so heinous, and that
maybe a lot of people just weren't aware of how
the process works.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Yeah, I mean it's speculative, but obviously there was a
lapse in time where this should have been done, should
have been done in a more timely fashion, And as
I said previously, it's one of those low frequency, high
impact events. You know, this doesn't happen every day, thank goodness,
but when it does, you have to know how to respond.
(10:35):
And so that's why again, you know, having good policy
and up to date training that's ongoing is very important
to have an adequate response to situations like this.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
So you've basically made it to where majority of your
upper staff must know the policies and procedures and what
must be done if and when an AMBER alert is needed.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
That's correct.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
So we had a meeting sometime mid July with the
State Police command staff. By mid August, Louisiana State Police
and the Fusion Center came down to the Chandri Pair
Sheriff's office and they hosted a training at our Sheriff's office.
And so we're closing in. I was last August that
(11:19):
we're closing in on August, and I've already given my
directive to the training coordinator to make sure that training
gets back on the books again this year.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Okay, and I guess let me fill in the listeners. So,
like you said, a phone call was made, they filled
out the form. Tinaposhers Office assumes that they've done it correctly.
They send it off to State Police, and we've got
all of this. It's a very in depth article posted
to Unfiltered and we'll link it into this podcast as well.
(11:49):
But there's screen grabs even showing hey, this is the
phone calls that we're making. But and this is where
I will still say I don't know what actually happened.
State Police came back and said, well, you didn't fill
out the form properly, and CHANGI is saying, you never
told us we didn't fill it out properly. As far
as we know, we filled it out properly. There was
(12:10):
this lapse going back and forth of well, this is
not going to qualify as an amber alert. It's a
level to endangerment. What does that mean. We'll send it
out to the media, but it's not going to go
out on your phone as the big Amber alert child missing.
And in between all of this, the TANGIPAAE Pear Sheriff's
office said, We're not dealing with this. I'm going to
go ahead and put out a press release on my own.
(12:32):
I'm not waiting on State police. I'm doing it. So
they put it out and so the media actually blasted
out that an amber alert's been issued before the actual
actual Amber alert came out, hence this kind of digging
as to what all happened. And I don't know if
you guys can respond to that. And even Ashley Ashley
(12:53):
is actually a former reporter. She used to work here
in Baton Rouge before going to New Orleans and now
she's over on the law enforcement side helping for public
information and media. From both of y'all's perspective, I guess
watching all this happen in real time, and now, even
knowing what all was going on, what do you think
(13:15):
of it? Now?
Speaker 3 (13:16):
Sure, you know, you know, outside looking in like everyone
else at the time.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
You know, you saw that battle going on.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Between you know, between state police and the Sheriff's office.
And I don't know if I have a really concrete
answer as to what transpired other than.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
On our part, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Things weren't done in a timely fashion. And as I
said before, there has to be certain actionable information. We
just can't put, you know, a gray sedan, you know,
or we just can't put half baked information out that
may or may not be accurate and put some innocent
member of our traveling public and danger because they're getting
(13:58):
stopped by the police that on a fellow the traffic stops.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So and I.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
Understand state police position when it comes to an amber alert.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
It's got to be.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
What we reasonably reasonably believe is the accurate information. If
there's not enough information, then that should have been you know,
communicated back. There should have been two points of contact,
and I don't know what number they called it State
Police at the time, but even on their website it
has a particular number that you contact to follow up.
So there should be a point of contact if there
(14:27):
is a problem to say you need to fill out
line too, or you omitted this. And so because I
think at the end of the day, whether it be
State Police, Shaff's Office, any host of agencies that assisted
during that time, you know, everybody wants the recovery of
those of those babies, and it's just getting past the
bureaucracy to make it happen.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
And maybe this wouldn't be such a topic if one
of the girls wasn't found dead. I think that's why
it ended up becoming a question of could an earlier
ambroller have maybe saved the life of the little girl.
And I don't know if we were ever able to
determine what time the child died because one of the
(15:11):
kids was found dead in Jackson, Mississippi, the other was
found alive. Asha, I want to go back to you,
and the same question goes for you that when you're
also a reporter, that when you're there looking at all
this kind of transpiring, and you guys were about to
take office. This was two weeks before you would officially
take office. Are you looking for a new bank, be
(15:37):
it for your business or for yourself. Neighbors Federal Credit
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Speaker 4 (16:55):
From a reporter perspective, I can say I absolutely understand
the picks not understanding a situation. If you know you
have missing children, put their pictures out, put their information out,
let's start looking for them. I didn't make the Red
the Amber alert process, so I don't know. And your
explanation of it is very helpful to explain that it
is not helpful to just put a generic vehicle out there,
(17:18):
because then you know law enforcement is pulling over every
vehicle just like that, or people might be targeting any
vehicle just like that, and there's a need to have
more specific details. To me, whatever you call it doesn't
matter to me as a former reporter. The information should
be out there. And I was mentioning to you previously
that we had a little bit of a close call
(17:40):
situation last week where I knew I wasn't waiting for anybody,
but I also knew to be specific about my wording
because I was not the authority on putting an Amber
alert out. But I needed to impress upon people this
is not a missing child, this is not a runaway.
This is a child who was taken. So in that situation,
(18:04):
as soon as the call came in, I kicked into
the practice that we had from that training. And like
the sheriff mentioned, there's multiple people in multiple divisions that
are in that training to be aware of what each
of us are supposed to be doing so we can partner.
Another really important thing that hasn't has been said, but
(18:26):
hasn't been pointed out is the partnerships. That room that
we were in in July with state police, there were
probably fifteen to twenty people in there, and the most
important thing there was this is this person's face that
goes with this name, This is what they do. This
is who you need to talk to when this happens
to make those relationships. So in this instance, I see
(18:47):
what happens, I run down the hall to Juvenile and
I say, hey, you know, no one was there. Of course,
I'm going in there to say, hey, y'all need me
to start working on something. No one's in there because
they've already all run out. So I just go to
my office and I start making my press release, my
graphics as I'm watching the email chain go and I'm
getting the pictures and I'm getting the details and I'm
(19:08):
doing it, getting it ready. And within thirty five minutes,
I'm sitting there with everything ready to go, just waiting
for our people to tell me where they're at on
the Amber alert process.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
And thirty five minutes from getting the information to being ready.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Yes, And I'm not getting in anybody's you know, I'm
not calling anybody. I'm just I'm ready and I'm just
waiting for them to do their part. They call me
and say, listen, I've got the form in front of
me filled out with everything that I've got and I'm
about to send it. I said, okay, when we hang up,
I'm going to call my counterpart at State Police to
(19:44):
let them know this is what I've got. And she said,
we don't know who's in that car, And I said,
I understand. You tell me you're ready, I'm ready, hang
up the phone, get on with state police, having that
conversation with pous book affairs, filling them in on what
I have and what I have ready, and then pop
(20:04):
sentence says we got them. Okay, great, I'll ask questions later,
Thank you so much, and then it was kind of
like a decompression for the rest of the day. But
the child, yep, found and fine, because we did not
know who was in the vehicle that was thought that
he got into, and this was a child with autism,
(20:27):
so we knew that there was an elevated, you know,
difference in the way a decision he would have made.
So it turns out that certainly don't want to knock
a very over vigilant and.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Careful bus driver.
Speaker 4 (20:43):
But they thought they noticed that this child got into
this vehicle that was passing at the same time he
got off the bus, because as soon as the car
passed or something to that effect, the child was no
longer seen. So it turned out he was asleep in
his bed for nap time after his summer school raph
But not the point. The point is the process that
was practice and put into place in August of last
(21:06):
year worked beautifully when it almost needed to just three
weeks ago, and we're just about to have our next
annual training. That's how important this is for the people
of that Sheriff's office, those were who were involved before
and who are just coming into it like myself. Now,
you know, it's not like it wasn't ever important. Children,
the situation is completely critical. But you know, we always
(21:28):
in the reporter world know that sometimes it takes a
tragic story for people to learn something, and they have
learned it and it is a great process. It's a
great relationship that we have right now. But again I
do even if it happens to someone else. Again, I
do understand the public's lack of grasping the levels and
(21:50):
the requirements of those levels. But again, we don't make
those rules. All we know is all I know is
I am not waiting for someone else. I am doing
what I've got to do. I'm going to reach out
to the partners around it, and I'm gonna start pushing
it as much as I can, you know, short of
state police doing what they can do to elevate it further.
And that's just how I feel about it from from
(22:12):
a mom's perspective from a former reporters perspective, and now
on that that p IO front.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
And sheriff, I guess talk to us about So you unfortunately,
slash fortunately kind of got a dry run of going
through the motions and it wasn't just you. Your entire staff
looks like, got it right?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Oh absolutely?
Speaker 3 (22:35):
Look, you know, I'm you know, I'm maybe the head
of the office, but it's the men and women that
you know, everything that I've done year one, July one
is coming up on one year in office, and so
everything that I've that I've tried to do inside the
walls of the Sheriff's office has been employee centric, from
trying to get their their salaries up to a little
(22:57):
wage as best I can to, to ongoing training to
equipping them because if if they if they're not properly
trained and equipped to do a good.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
Job, then I'm not going to do a good job.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
And so you know, every emphasis, everything that I do
undertake is geared toward our employees so that they can
better serve our citizens when the time comes. And uh,
you know, we were fortunate and that's how you know,
ninety nine percent of these calls when we get a
missing child. It's just that I found them sleeping in
(23:30):
toy boxes in the back of their closets, you know.
I found them went to the you know, the next
door apartment because they thought they went into their apartment.
It's just and we're glad one of those in. But
everybody's blood pressure goes through the roof when we get
those type of calls, and was like, we're praying it's
not that one percent that's coming to visit us that day.
And so, you know, we live in a very very
(23:52):
big parish, a very rural parish, but.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
And we got a lot of ground to cover. But
that's why it's impaired of that.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
We work smart, and you know, our men and women
there at the Shriff's office, they're dedicated, they really are.
And so again that's my main emphasis is just educating
and training those deputies so they can so they can
perform at their highest level.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
How about the fact that you reduced the timing from
three hours last time to around thirty five minutes.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, no, I mean that's yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
I'll take it every day and all day on Sunday,
you know, So we're happy with that, and that's a
result of of the just that that training, you know,
and just making sure that you know, look, every operation
that we do, whether it's whether it's a homicide, whether
it's a special event at a festival, we always we
plan going into these type events. And then on the
(24:46):
backside of it, we also have an after action meeting
where we all sit down and say, Okay, what worked
and what didn't work, and and you know, there's no
everybody's rank comes off, and then we have you know,
honest discussions because we all have room for improvement. No
matter how good we do, there are still nuances that
(25:08):
could be tweaked to make it more efficient. But I'm
very happy that this number one turned out to be
a non event. But I'm also was equally happy that
we were that we answered the bell when it rang.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
So to either one of you guys. So let's clarify.
The thirty five minutes. Was that from knowing information to
having it to the Amber alert was ready to push,
or was that you guys getting all your ducks in
a row and being able to turn everything to state police.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
The thirty five minutes was from the time the call
came in that there was a child who is believed
to have gotten into a vehicle that shouldn't have and
did not know who was in that vehicle or where
it was going. To me being ready to hit send
on a news release and social media posts, and our
agency sending the filled out to officially call it a
(26:02):
an Amber alert request to state police.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
And so let me make sure I clarify this. State
Police is the only one who can send an Amber
alert in Louisiana, correct, correct? Okay, So we don't know
how long it would have taken for state Police to
receive that information and dissect it and officially put out
an Amber alert.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Correct, Okay, But the process was being followed this time,
as it pertains to this form going to this email
address or through this portal to a particular person with
the plan to then pick up the phone and call
and say did you receive this? We just sent this
at the same time as me on the phone with
the public affairs folks saying this is happening on the
operational front right now. We now need to talk about
(26:43):
this happening on the public affairs front right now. So
you'd have two arms working at the same time.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Okay, Well, and let's again, this is not a bashing.
It's kind of like you said it best that after
some an event like this happens, a big hurricane, even
in journalism, a big event. What did we do right?
What did we not do wrong? You almost have it's
constructed criticism, but you also have to have tough skin.
So this is not a bashing. I guess where there
are things that you guys learned that hey, they were
(27:10):
done wrong on our end. And when I say our,
I don't mean physically your people, but uh, the change
of Hope, pair of Sheriff's office, and again a lot
of it may have been we just didn't know the
proper process. So in our heads we're sitting there saying,
let me just call the top people at state Police
and hurry, hurry, hurry. But in reality, there was a
(27:32):
set process that needed to be followed. From everything I'm gathering,
that's what I'm understanding.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, And like I said, I can't speak on their behalf,
and there's, as understand it, pending litigation out there, so
I don't want to speak to the specifics of it.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
What they what they what they did or didn't do.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
You know, I just focused on July one, moving forward,
What were we going to do about it. And and
so we just made sure that we were were short
up on the law enforcement side to properly gather the information,
process it and then send it down the pipe to
(28:12):
state police. And you know, theoretically, you know, back a
couple a little bit, you know, when we send that email,
theoretically they get it right then. But we follow up
with that phone call just to say, you know, because
we all miss emails, you know, go look at your email,
make sure you have it. So I think you know
that process, you know, disco around this latest dry run,
(28:34):
if you will, we were we were teed up and
everything went seamless, and uh and we're.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Grateful for that.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Good good. I mean, I hate to say this, but
in norm way, I'm kind of glad you got got
the practice running. So well, let's let's talk about a
different issue. I don't I'm sure you guys have seen this.
There's so many times that if we're in Texas on VIC,
the phone is ding ding ding ding ding. And obviously
(29:04):
when a NAMB alert goes out, it's not just my phone,
it's every phone is going out. Oh, Fredericksburg, Houston, Dallas,
you can be anywhere and sometimes it's two three times
in a day. I'm not going to lie. I look
at the phone and I'm like, okay, another amb alert
and I put it back in my purse. But is
(29:26):
too much? Is there a fatigue if you do it
too much?
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Like?
Speaker 1 (29:32):
Is there a fine line? And I guess I want
to hear it from law enforcement. What Joel's perspectives are
that there were a lot of people back then saying,
who cares, get it out, get it out, get it out.
And like Ashley said, from a reporter's perspective, we can
understand that. From the public's perspective, we can understand it.
(29:52):
And in this situation it turned out to be the
worst case scenario that a child had died. But majority
of the times the person is you found. And it's
a fine line of do we hurry up and just
get it out and do kind of like that fatigue
that happens when it comes to Texas sending out too
many or do we simmer it down and only send
(30:12):
out a few so when it does go out, we're
grabbing that viewer's attention.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Sure, And you know, again, this is one of those
I'll say it again, low frequency, high impact events and
so I don't.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
I don't.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Unfortunately, it doesn't happen a lot, and so I think
that's why there's that lower tier, the level two missing endangered,
where they'll put out a text blast and and so yeah,
even there's a there's a process with that too in
certain criteria meets. But when it's your kid, you don't care.
You want the information out, yes, and especially if it
(30:45):
is in today's world. You know, we all we all
know that news moves at the speed of light, and
everybody's monitoring social media, and so the information is out there,
and and you know, I don't think you know, yeah,
there is a tendency to get tone death to it.
If if it's just blasted every day, every day it's
something new, it just becomes, you know, unfortunately, what's we
(31:10):
expect to.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
See and hear.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
But when it's community sensitive issue, and there's no more
of a community sensitive issue than a missing child, so
our a runaway we had, you know, we helped the
neighbor and perish with a with a runaway teenager yesterday
and that was another you know, that lower level correct
and he was found in tangible parish and safely, thank goodness.
So so yeah, just having that that lower level. And
(31:38):
so I don't think, you know, tone death or you know,
just people blowing it off will hopefully never become an issue,
just because everybody and their community and their neighborhood, they
want to make sure all their all their children are safe.
And so I think I think we're good on that point.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Ashley, same question.
Speaker 4 (31:59):
I mean, you definitely I struggle with, you know, the
concept of we have runaways, then you have missing and
you know, how do you elevate them to kind of
plan for the oh there's another one, you know, to
make them understand there is a difference to it. At
the same time too, you know, I never thought about
it the way he explained it, the way people are today.
(32:20):
If you put out something generic like we believe that
this child is in this vehicle and they don't know
who they're with, we need the public to look out
for this car. There are people in this society today
that will be calm vigilantes. We'll go looking for these
cars and will make bad choices that could result in
(32:41):
an unnecessary situation, injury, even death. And so I do
understand the concept of now literally in this conversation, whereas
before I maybe didn't of needing to be very specific
as much as possible to say what it is you're
looking for. However, I still don't see a reason to
(33:01):
not say something because you're missing a piece. In this
particular situation, we did not know who was driving that vehicle.
I don't believe that the elevation of that process should
have stopped because we don't know who's physically driving it.
If we know the kid, and we know the vehicle,
and we know the general direction it was headed, and
(33:23):
we're trying to do our part, if we can't see
the license plate, we don't know where it's going, but
we know the vehicle and where it was when he
got in it, I don't understand why that's not something
that we would like to try to put out as
a possibility. But then I do also get now you've
got a target on every vehicle like that right now,
(33:44):
really anywhere in the parishes that touch and how could
that turn out? You know, you also have a scenario
where he said, now you've got law enforcement trying to
look for that vehicle everywhere and pulling it over left
and right, and you don't know who's in those vehicles
and how they're feeling about whatever. I mean, we know
how things go these days. So it's really a fine
balance between between the I don't want to use this wording.
(34:06):
It's I don't want to say risk reward, but you
have to you have that fine balance about you know,
needing to have exact information, uh, to hit a certain level,
but that does not stop you, in my opinion, from
getting out what you can in whatever manner. So if
it is that we can elevate on a local front,
ask our partners around us to kind of elevate it
(34:26):
on a regional front, and then when we hit the
markers that are required on a statewide front with that
literal push, then that's fine.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
And Ashley, you said it best that you in today's
day and age. From everything you just said, that's the
advantage of social media in today's day and age. However,
social media can go very negative as well. That if
you guys law enforcement, the officials don't get the information
out first and correctly, things are going to spread and
they're going to spread like wildfire and it could be
(34:57):
incorrect information. So, and I'll even add this that as
a reporter, a lot of times what I do is
I pick up the phone, and I call the PIO
and I ask them, shoot me straight. Is this simply
a runaway because fifteen sixteen year olds do run away?
Or is this a more dire situation? Prime example, we
(35:19):
had that happen over in Browley, in West Baton Rouge Parish.
We think he was seventeen years old. And I asked,
point blank, I said, did this child run away? Because
we had the mom. The mom's begging us, help us,
help us, help us. But when a child runs away,
it doesn't matter to a mother if they ran away,
if they're in danger or whatever in their head. Rightfully,
(35:41):
so my child's gone. I don't care what you do.
Get my child back. We've got the mom saying something's wrong.
This isn't my child. There's no way he doesn't run away.
Called law enforcement and asked, point blank, do you suspect
something more serious here or do you think this is
just a runaway? Our staff, we don't trigger putting out
(36:02):
a missing person until I have word of we suspect
this one's not looking good. We don't go based on
a post that says, hey runaway. Now. Social media helps
because if that runaway child is seen, you just did
your job but from the media perspective, maybe I'm calling
it responsible journalism. And actually, you know, journalism is changing
(36:24):
left and right at this time as well because of
social media. But that was a long winded way of
sheriff bringing back that you've been in law enforcement. You said,
how long.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Since full time since nineteen ninety.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Five, So times have changed.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Absolutely, Yeah, you know, we've we've come a long way
from the big chief pad and the number two pencil.
And you know, when we had.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
A you know, a runaway and we knew, you know,
what we did back then.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
You know, obviously we took the information to generate a
report and we you know, we call that information and
the dispatch and it went in to the National Crime
Information Center, to the state NCIC computer. And again, you know,
nine times out of ten, as soon as the dispatcher
took the you know, the time to fill out all
(37:13):
the field, submit it, get confirmation that was in there,
inevitably they would come back home. And we were grateful
for that, but we knew that. But every the point is,
every time we aired on the side of caution and
entered that juvenile's information into the computer, we went through
the process knowing and hoping that it was going to
(37:35):
be you know, a false alarm, that they were going
to get hungry and come home, or they were going
to turn up somewhere safe. And you know, countless times
we've done that, but countless times we still followed the
process of entering that information because the one time that
you don't is when it's gonna it's when it's going
to come back to haunt you. And so you know,
(37:56):
that's that's been my rule of thumb and pretty much
anything err on the side of caution. You got to
look at worst case and use good judgment and observation
that experience to make those sound decisions and judgment calls.
And when it comes to kids, every time you better
be air and on the.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Side of caution.
Speaker 1 (38:15):
Absolutely anything else you'd like you both would like to add.
Speaker 4 (38:19):
No, we're just I mean, I would say that I'm
very confident and I believe that the public and tangible
parish should be confident too that the team at Tangiba
parishurf's office right now is going to get it done
when it's got to get done. They care, they know
what they're doing. They take their job seriously. It's not
a job it's it's a calling and I see it
(38:41):
every day. It's really refreshing, especially having been a reporter
before covering this agency under a different administration and being
in the building. I have all the confidence that if
it was my child, I know they're going to find them,
and they're going to find them safe and quickly.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Absolutely and surely first makes one year for you. So congratulations,
thank you. And I'll even add this, one of the
big things in today's day and age the public demands,
not asks for demands, is transparency and we have seen
so much. In fact, there are times all till Ashley
like stop stop sending releases. Can you go to sleep?
(39:20):
Because she is just NonStop. But we appreciate what you
guys are doing. And I think I can speak for
the public as well as from a reporter standpoint that
it's good to have that working relationship with you guys
to where we can pick up the phone and say, hey,
let's have a conversation what's really happening here? So thank
you guys.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
Oh absolutely, no, and you know she is. She does
a job of three three individuals.
Speaker 3 (39:46):
At our shareff's office, and we are we're very fortunate
to have her and you know, and I've come a
long way through that process. When I first got in
the law enforcement, you know, there's kind of the old school,
you know, disdain for the media and all, because you know,
they only come into plane ashes and we land planes
every day, thousands of them, but you know, they only
come put a microphone in your face when when one
(40:06):
crash is on you.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
But you know, mature and in the profession over the
years and actually serving as a public information officer at
a previous agency that I was volun told to go
into that role. It's not something that I put in far,
but I was basically and instructed that I was going
to be the new PIO for the UH for that agency.
(40:29):
And and but there again they reinforced it. You know,
I got the opportunity to go to the State Police
for their forty hour training in another forty hour block
that was put on by a former national I think news.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
Producer, and so I got it on both ends.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
And I got another ten week media course when I
opportunity to go to the FBI Academy.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
And so.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
It's a you know, it's a I won't call it
a necessary evil, but I've learned over the years that
you know, the media has a story to tell and
so it may as well be your story. And there's
at times when that plane crashes. There's no easy way
to eat a soup sandwich.
Speaker 2 (41:08):
You just have to eat it.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
But we strive every day to you know, to put
our best foot forward and to be transparent because you know,
the public needs to know what's going on. They're not
gullible enough to believe that everything's just rainbows and you know, corns, right,
and so we give it to them the good, the bad,
and the ugly, and it's good. That's what they'll always
get from me as sheriff.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
Well, it's appreciated, and I think both of you guys
for coming on and talking to us. I'm happy to
see that there are improvements when it comes to the
Amber alert because who knows when it'll help the next person,
that's right, So thank you both. Then, to our listeners,
we appreciate you listening and as always, we will see
you on the next episode of Louisiana Unfiltered.
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