Like a general manager and a head coach who have put their team together, New Iberia Mayor Freddie DeCourt and Police Chief Todd D’Albor  introduced the new New Iberia Police Department to the world Tuesday afternoon on the front steps of City Hall.

More than 60 police officers were sworn in at the brief ceremony attended by an estimated 100 people. It was a significant moment in the history of this great city along the Bayou Teche.

They go to work officially on July 1, a Sunday, the day after a contract for law enforcement services expires with the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office.

They already have had a presence on city streets for several weeks for the first time in 14 years. Motorists driving along Main Street on a June 3 Sunday morning saw a new, white NIPD cruiser traveling in the left lane, followed by another one a few minutes later in downtown New Iberia.

For many residents, those NIPD vehicles are a sight for sore eyes. The NIPD was disbanded by the New Iberia City Council in 2004.

Thirteen years later, in October 2017, 63 percent  of local voters — 2,512 of them, to be exact — who showed up at the polls said yes to a 1/2-cent sales tax to help fund the creation and operation of an NIPD. They believed in DeCourt’s plan to start from scratch and build a local police department.

Only 20 percent of eligible city voters took the time to cast their vote.

On election night, the happy mayor said, “I need to thank the voters and everybody involved with the PAC. The Community has spoken. It’s not my police department, it’s the community’s.”

A few months later, D’Albor was hired as police chief and interviews were conducted for applicants seeking to become police officers. It was an intensive an exhaustive process that spanned a few months beginning in February.

The process has been methodical and calculated. The backdrop for the behind-the-scenes work before the men and women take to the street is one that is of great concern to local residents — an increase in violent crime, i.e. shootings, over the past few months.

Hopefully, the city’s police officers can make a difference to stem the tide of violence and make our city streets safer.

Hopefully, their presence also will curb the traffic violations that are dangerous, such as ignoring stop signs, going over the speed limit in school zones, running red lights, etc.

Time will tell. We are behind the blue, the men and women wearing the badge of the NIPD.

Godspeed.

DON SHOOPMAN

SENIOR NEWS EDITOR