The Optimist Club of New Iberia honored local law enforcement officers at the club’s annual Respect For Law event Wednesday at the Southern Comfort Inn and Suites.

Started in July of 1965, Respect For Law was created by Optimist International President Carl Bowen and former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and 1,500 clubs celebrate the event each year. Locally, members of the New Iberia Police Department, Iberia Sheriff’s Office and State Police Troop I were this year’s recipients. The three different agencies nominated an officer they felt to be deserving of recognition. This year’s honorees were Sgt. Coquina Mitchell of the NIPD, Deputy James Wallace of the IPSO and Tropper Jordan Chapple of the LA SPT 1.

District Attorney Bo Duhe served as the master of ceremony for the Respect the Law event this year

Current New Iberia Optimist President Marty Lejeune said club members wanted to honor this year’s officers as a simple thank you for everything they do, putting their lives on the line to serve the community. Over the last handful of years, law enforcement officers have had a negative light shined on them, he said, and local Optimist Club members wanted to demonstrate all the good officers do for their communities.

“We think the police force is important to have,” Lejeune said. “We feel more protected for the citizens of New Iberia.”

Speaking to a packed room including residents, law officers and club members, Duhe said the honores don’t serve their community strictly for money but rather for a purpose.

“Y’all do it for the love and the commitment for your communities,” Duhe said. “I know the public respects y’all and appreciates what you do. Because it’s critical to what we do.”

Respect is something law enforcement officers can’t go out and buy, Duhe said, but have to earn from the community and the people they serve. It’s earned from years of commitment, he added, and through leadership demonstrated on a daily basis.

“Your fellow officers and the public are here to tell you thank you for what you do,” Duhe said.

Born and raised in New Iberia, Mitchell was thankful to be honored at the event, though she knew she couldn’t have achieved the recognition alone, saying she received lots of help along the way.

“I had lots of help,” Mitchell said. “It wasn’t just me. It took a team of we. My parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and realvies raised a bunch of us and kept a watchful eye on us, making certain we didn’t make too many left turns.”

When the time came for Mitchell to decide what she wanted to do with her life, she always knew she wanted to serve her hometown in law enforcement, gaining relationships with countless brothers and sisters along the way.

“We’ve had the opportunity, the officers, to witness the utmost encouragement, motivation, respect and compassion that employees rarely get to feel,” Mitchelle said.

For more than half of his life, Wallace has served Iberia Parish and its communities and said he is still humbled by it all.

“Some 20 years ago, I started with a job and a few years in, I noticed it was an assignment and there’s a difference,” Wallace said.

The assignment for the last 20-plus years has been walking the halls of Westgate High all these years as the school resource officer, a job he always wanted to do.

“When you have young people, you have the opportunity to teach and counsel them to have them become productive citizens to have them one day to contribute to the community,” Wallace said. “That has been my mission since day one.”

Being back in the Teche Area, a place where she got her start in 2014 in the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office, Chapple said that being honored here means a great deal to her.

“For that, I am thankful that is what started my career, and I knew that immediately I started working there, this is where I was supposed to be,” Chapple said. “You hear people in law enforcement all the time say this isn’t a job, it’s a calling and that is what it truly is.”

With almost five years of experience under her belt, Chapple takes pride in her job and the role she plays in the community.

“I absolutely love my job, I love it,” Chapple said. “I’m just grateful to be here.”

After a standing ovation to all the officers there and who are currently serving the communities of New Iberia, Duhe once again thanked them for everything they do for the Teche Area.

“You can sleep tonight knowing these are the people protecting you and this is the commitment they have,” Duhe said. “We you go out tonight or in the next couple of days in our community and you see something negative on the news about the police department, I want you to stop them and say, ‘Hey, let me tell you about a story and something I witnessed and the stories I heard.’”