Three parishes started the year with a new sheriff at the helm. In Calcasieu Parish, Stitch Guillory garnered 60 percent of the vote in the 2023 gubernatorial primary and general elections. In Cameron Parish, Chris Savoie was the clear winner with a 57 percent majority vote. Kyle Miers, in Jeff Davis Parish, immobilized the incumbent with help from more than 55 percent of voters.      

All three winners do not see themselves as politicians, but public servants. Faith in God, devotion to family at home and at work, and an old-fashioned solid work ethic are some of the characteristics these men hold in common.

CNA to sheriff

“Oh no, I’m not a politician,” said Miers with a hearty laugh. “I’m a worker.”

The Roanoke native joined the National Guard his junior year. While his friends were on senior trips to Florida, he was at Fort Benning. His first job out of school was working as a certified nursing assistant with the elderly. He started assisting patients on dialysis, got an instrumentation degree, switched his focus to medical equipment, started a business, and moved to Lake Charles to be closer to the hospitals.

Tony Mancuso, Calcasieu Parish Sheriff for 20 years, was a neighbor. Miers was struck by how down to earth Mancuso is, but it was Bubba Mayeaux — who was chief deputy at the time — who convinced Miers to take a second job as a reserve giving him his first taste of a life in law enforcement. That second job turned into a full-time career.

He has worked in corrections, patrol, SWAT and ran the CPSO wellness program. He was on the dive team and was a dive team supervisor, coordinating operations with the US Coast Guard, Homeland Security and Border Patrol.

When he became first-line supervisor for felony investigations, he asked Mayeaux what it would take to move up.

“Did you ever think about moving back to Jeff Davis Parish and running for sheriff,” Mayeaux replied.

Miers and his wife talked about it. They prayed about it, and decided if he did make a move, it wouldn’t be until the 2027 election when the girls were out of school.         

“I am a faith-driven person,” Miers said. “I am going to tell you right now, I truly believe this (being elected as sheriff) was ordained by God, and I am not ashamed to say it.”     

He shared details of earnestly seeking for God’s direction after a divorce, the trials and loss in his lives and answered prayers that led to baptism, marrying his wife Miranda, losing his Lake Charles home to Hurricane Laura and feelings of failure when he couldn’t find a new home for his family, finally bidding on a home and winning it, his wife’s disappointment when he told her he felt lead to run in 2023, and finally, how she found her peace about the matter through prayer.

Not first chief deputy to win

Savoie said he’s no politician. He has never run for anything in his life, until he ran for sheriff.

“Before you ask, I am not closely related to James R. “Sono” Savoie. We are distant kin,” he said.

In 1980, Sono was elected sheriff and ex-officio tax collector of Cameron Parish, serving the parish for six consecutive terms, 24 years more than any other sheriff on record for Calcasieu Parish.

A wizard at calculating figures in his head, one of his favorite sayings was, “You can have all the book sense in the world but without common sense you have nothing.”

Sono hired Theos Duhon to be his chief deputy after Duhon retired from the Calcasieu Sheriff’s Office in 1980. When Sono retired, Duhon was elected sheriff. Duhon hired Ron Johnson as his chief deputy. When Duhon retired, Johnson ran and won in 2012, 2016 and 2020.

“He appointed me chief deputy,” Savoie said, “and the people were kind enough to elect me. It’s been an honor.”

Savoie’s first job was working at the hospital the summer of his 14th year.  He went to McNeese for a year, and Savoie hired him at the age of 19 as a patrolman. Because he had a wife and three kids to take care of and the patrolman’s job was seven on and seven off,  he often worked a second job.

“I needed a job when I applied with the Sheriff’s Office, but you don’t know if a job is right until you do it. I got in here, started working, fell in love with it, being able to help, serve. Maybe it’s not always under the best of circumstances, but you help them through their problems and you’re there to take care of business when you need to.”

LIke Miers, he enjoys the support and prayers of his family, calling his wife “a saint, my rock.”

“I couldn’t have done this without her, the rest of my family and the Lord,” he said. “Without faith, how can you make a difference in the world? Without Jesus, the world would be without hope.”

First Black sheriff  in Calcasieu Parish

“Being a sheriff takes humility you know, putting others ahead of yourself, being empathetic, being compassionate,” Guillory said.

He is a man of faith and is devoted to family, spending the time he can at his daughters’ games and watching his son, a McNeese band member, at games.

“I used to go to the football games to watch the game,” Guillory said, “halftime was for grabbing something to eat or drink. Not now.”

Guillory said he didn’t know how anyone could be in law enforcement for the long term without faith because of “the stuff they have to deal with, the stuff they see.”

He will never forget the 4-year old found dead in Vinton last month, and his brother, a 1-year-old found alive in the ditch the next day.

“I have a lot of sleepless nights,” he said. “So, you have to lean on that faith sometimes to get you through.”

Guillory began his career in law enforcement as a patrolman with the Westlake Police Department in 1983. During his 21-year career there, he was promoted to shift sergeant, detective, captain and assistant chief of police until elected as chief of police in 2002. In 2004, Mancuso appointed Guillory as his chief deputy, and he remained in that position until he ran for sheriff in 2023.

Challenges and wins

Money isn’t the driving force behind any man or woman choosing a career in law enforcement, a job where lives can be put on the line; however, starting pay is getting better.   

“When I started with the Sheriff’s Office, the starting pay for a deputy was $1,050 a month before taxes,” Guillory said.

Now, in Calcasieu and Cameron parishes, patrol officers start at $40,900. After a year, if they get certified, the pay goes to about $50,000. The Jeff Davis Police Jury recently approved a raise for 17 of the parish’s 28 correctional officers at Miers’ request. Before the approval, Jeff Davis had the lowest starting salary in the five-parish region.

Two weeks into the new year as sheriff, Miers made repairs at the jail that had been lingering for two years.

He is working to get certified school resource officers in all schools.

Miers faces the challenge of serving in the parish where the unsolved homicides of eight women has been turned into a real TV crime drama.

“I’m not going to promise anything that I can’t achieve,” he said, “They deserve better than that, right? The one thing I am going to tell you is that I am going to respect them. We are definitely looking into it and we’re going to continue to look into it until we come up with some kind of resolution. They deserve it, and not only them but their families. The only difference between my daughters and those girls are decisions and circumstances, and so I truly feel I am here for God’s purpose, and I’m going to fulfill that. And, the moment I turn into a politician, I lose that.”

New cars and uniforms in Calcasieu

After Guillory became sheriff, he met with every single employee and almost every one expressed interest in new car markings and new uniforms. The Sheriff’s Office has had the same car markings for 24 years, and the new uniforms will be made of more breathable and more comfortable fitting fabrics, he said.

“We’re spending $450 per car on the old markings, and the new markings are $450,” Guillory said.

New cars are placed into service every year and that will continue until cars with old markings are replaced. In a nutshell, cars with new markings mean no additional cost for the CPSO, and added safety and visibility.

He has raised the pay, but with the reality in mind that such raises are an additional recurring expense that also affect retirement benefit expenses.

He inherited the crime fighting and community building legacy he’s proud to continue.

“Compared to the rest of the state, I feel like we’re an example of what communities should look like,” he said. “Sheriff Mancuso did an excellent job of establishing community relationships and that makes a difference. Whenever you see a community where the people are helping solve crime, that tells me you have their trust. They’re stepping up.”

Guillory didn’t see relationship building between law enforcement and residents when he was growing up in one of the area’s low-income housing projects.     

Guillory, like Mancuso, understands the importance of the latest technology in fighting crime today. He expects the department will turn to digital forensics more and more to solve cases.

“We wouldn’t be in this position with the crime lab and other technological advances had it not been for the taxpayers who approved the taxes that were needed. It’s a good feeling to sit here and know that if we had a storm tomorrow, we don’t have to depend on FEMA for anything.”

Work family matters

All three of the new sheriffs talked about the men and the women who make the sheriff’s offices successful.

“You have to have a cohesive team to accomplish the goals of the parish and of the Sheriff’s Department,” Savoie said. “It’s not your success, it’s the team’s success.”

Savoie said he pirated the following from a previous Cameron Parish Sheriff: “We’re a work family. We have our differences. We have our different perspectives, but we also have a common goal and everyone does their part.”

Like Guillory, Savoie is encouraged by how technology is taking a major role in fighting and solving crime.

“Our guys have license plate readers, body cameras, in-car computers and printers. We have drones, a traffic division, SWAT team and we’ve created a sheriff resource officer and litter abatement program.”

The parish has a system that allows them to keep tabs on and do welfare checks on the elderly and other shut-ins. Parish youth programs have been expanded.

If Savoie could write a check for the next big step the department wants to take, he would create multi-use office structures on both sides of the river with “hardened” infrastructure such as generators and communications that would stay up through storms or at least immediately following. A special crime collection unit would be advantageous, he said. He wants to increase the patrol on the west side of the river and create a Highway Interdiction Team to disrupt and dismantle the transportation of illegal narcotics, especially on La. 82, which could be used as an alternative route to Interstate 10.

Savoie said being sheriff can be demanding, but many jobs are.

“You have to rededicate yourself to the commitment to serve on a daily basis.”

In an interview with local media, Guillory might have explained the job best when he said, “It’s the best worst job you could ever have.” In an earlier speech before he was elected to office, he said, “You have to have a servant’s  heart.”