Some members of the Monroe City Council seemed surprised to learn that the Monroe City Marshal’s office and the Monroe Police Department are two separate entities, each with its own funding source.
The complaint leveled by some citizens at Tuesday’s council meeting is that the city is buying ten new vehicles for the police department but is neglecting the Marshal’s office, whose vehicles seem to be aged and in bad repair.
That’s when the public was informed that the Marshal’s office has its own budget, which is already subsidized by the City of Monroe.
The council inadvertently addressed a problem that many know about but few talk about. For all practical purposes, the City of Monroe funds the operation of two police departments.
The City Marshal is not a department of the City of Monroe; the Marshal is an officer of the Monroe City Court. The Marshal’s duties are spelled out in state law. According to state law, “the marshal is the executive officer of the court; he shall execute the orders and mandates of the court, and in the execution thereof, and in making arrests and preserving the peace, he has the same powers and authority of a sheriff.”
The law sets a minimum salary of $14,400 a year for the Marshal. The city only has an obligation to pay half of that, with the other half being paid by the Police Jury. The reason the Police Jury is involved is because the Marshal actually serves all of Wards 3 and 10, including those parts that are in the parish.
Like the sheriff, the Marshall can hire deputies to help him execute city court orders or make court-ordered arrests. The costs of his entire operation, on paper, are to be paid from the proceeds from court fees.
Under the Mayo Administration, the role of the Marshal’s office was expanded with the city footing the bill. The entire Marshal’s office was moved to the top floor of city hall, pushing out other city agencies. More deputies were hired to cover duties outside of servicing the city court. Today, the Marshal’s office is locked and loaded with a variety of weapons, bulletproof vests, and other arms. Still, many of its deputies who are not executing court warrants, spend days behind security desks at various city agencies or handling funeral duties.
To underwrite these expanded duties, the city under the Mayo and now Ellis administrations continue to spend more than a million dollars a year to subsidize the Marshal’s office.
Last year, according to its latest audit, the city plucked out $1,148,531 to underwrite the Marshal’s office. On its own, the Marshall’s office brought in only $193,866 from court fees, which was less than 2020 because of the COVID shutdown of the courts.
Altogether the Marshal’s office took in $1.2 million, of that $1.1 million was spent on salaries and benefits.
That answers the questions raised about why the Marshal’s automobiles are outdated: They don’t have the money.
It’s a touchy subject. No one in the Black community wants to deal with it because the office is operated by a black city marshal who is loved and respected, with a predominately black crew of deputies that are also loved and respected.
Since the city is underwriting a second police department, is it possible there can be a better use for its deputies than simply idling time watching security monitors in city agencies?
The marshals have the one thing city police don’t have: The confidence and respect of the public.
What would happen if the city turned to the Marshal to develop a community policing program in tough neighborhoods to help reduce crime.
The city marshal has the ear of the people, unlike our combative police chief, who only knows how to talk tough but never listens.
The City Marshal is elected, so he listens, and his duties have never been accused of abusive actions. Why not reassess the city’s partnership with the city with an eye toward using Marshals to help reduce crime.
It may even take a larger subsidy than the city already gives.
Since the city is funding two police departments anyway, it makes sense to better use the $1 million a year it spends on the Marshal’s office.
