In session: City of Ville Platte conducts training

Retired Louisiana State Trooper Willie Williams conducted his first class as a training officer for the Ville Platte Police Department on Tuesday. The Department of Justice (DOJ) was listening over the phone as Williams conducted the first of seven classes covering various subjects. Williams, who retired after 20 years as a Louisiana state trooper and has a total of 25 years in law enforcement, said this first class covered the 4th Amendment which says what is permissible by law when it comes to search and seizure in the United States.
“This class is laying the foundation for the training we’re going to be doing,” said Williams. “I call it a foundation class because it explains all of the 4th Amendment when it comes to search and seizure, acquiring search warrants and things of that nature. Everything we’re going to be doing is building off of the 4th Amendment because that’s mostly what we deal with in police work.”
Williams also said all of the police officers are being provided with policy and procedure. The actual presentation is actually the policy that is in effect now for the Ville Platte Police Department. “We’re training and teaching this so that there’s no mistake about what policy is and what we will do going forward as far as following this policy. As long as the officers stick to what they’re being trained on, keep up with the policy, and do things to the letter of the policy, then there won’t be any violation of 4th Amendment law.”
At the training class, officers learned of the proper way to execute search warrants and to be specific and professional in their paperwork when asking a judge to sign a warrant. Williams gave specific examples where police in other parts of the country have made serious, even deadly errors when executing search warrants. He said it is not enough to put just an address of the building that needs to be searched, but to also put a description of the building and even take a picture to upload to the digital document.
Types of warrants were discussed, with Williams saying no-knock search warrants should be used sparingly. These warrants allow police to enter certain premises without first knocking and announcing their presence or purpose prior to entering. Such warrants are issued when knocking could lead to destruction of the objects of the search or if it would compromise the safety of the police or another individual.
There are low risk search warrants which could be a search of a vehicle or structure that is securely in police custody, a crime scene that has been completely secured that is empty of people and animals, video surveillance footage, etc. Examples of moderate risk search warrants would be for a stolen TV in an occupied house, a warrant to collect evidence with DNA associated with a sex crime, etc.
High risk search warrants are more dangerous to the officers as these situations pose a significant risk of safety and require expert planning and specialized equipment. High risk warrants should only be executed by the Louisiana State Police or other agencies that have expertise and training in executing such warrants. Examples of high risk factors would be if the suspect is associated with a para-military, terrorist, or violent extremist organization or criminal gang, the suspect is known or believed to possess fully automatic weapons or explosives, the site is known or believed to be booby-trapped, etc.
Williams also stressed professionalism when writing out a warrant. He presented an example of a badly-written warrant that contained mistakes, misspellings, and vague information. Then he presented a proper warrant written clearly with specific information to show how warrants should be presented to judges.
Among other subjects William discussed when dealing with searches and seizures was to make sure the officer’s informant is reliable. He said if the officer presents the wrong information to a judge and the judge signs a warrant based on bad information, the judge will most likely not have any faith in the officer after that.
Police Chief Neil Lartigue said Williams is an invaluable instructor for the department and added, “This is to show the public that we’re staying in compliance with the DOJ and showing we’re keeping up with our end of the deal to hire a training officer and continue our training.”
Councilman Bryant Riggs attended the training class, saying, “It was important for me to attend to show the police department, the officers, and the chief that I have their back and to support them as a city government official. I speak for myself and all the city council and the mayor. Also, it’s important to me to get a better understanding of what the officers’ training is going to consist of and what their duties and how they perform in the field, to make me understand what they’re doing out there. That’s a way I can assist as a city government official to help better the police department and put them in the right direction. I feel that is one of my sole duties as an elected official.”
City Marshal Nicole Snoddy Latour sat in on the training for a while, saying it was important to her because, “I like to know all about warrants and to see if anything has changed. Education is very important. We do bench warrants and probation warrants, and we’re going to start doing a lot of traffic and stuff like that.”
When asked if it took a lot of convincing for him to come and train the VPPD, Williams said, “It’s nice to be retired, but when you have a particular set of skills, and you’re capable to bring those skills and help a city’s police department, then any good American is going to want to see and make sure they can do their best for everybody else to do their best. We have a wonderful department here. We have good people here. When you’re able to help someone, that’s what you try and do. That’s the way my siblings and I were raised. If you can help someone, you help someone, because sooner or later it’s going to come back to you.”
Williams also said the public may perceive Ville Platte as a city full of bad people, but added, “In spite of what may be perceived by the public, there are still more good people here in Ville Platte than there are bad. The good people deserve to be protected, and that’s what we’re trying to do. I think the public will be happy with what they’re seeing as far as the training, because the important part is incorporating the training into what you do on the streets. These officers are professional enough to be able to incorporate what they’re learning to what they’re doing on the streets.”