Considering the kind of year 2016 has been for St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s deputies with them assisting Baton Rouge with officer shootings and Louisiana’s historic flood, Sheriff Greg Champagne recognized all 422 staff members as this year’s “Deputy of the Year.”
“Throughout these difficult times, the members of the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office performed admirably and were eager to volunteer to help wherever necessary,” Champagne said. “Due to the collective effort throughout the Sheriff’s Office, I was not able to single any one individual’s actions for recognition in light of what every employee in the Sheriff’s Office has joined together to accomplish. Our members are a team, and act as a team.”
They did act as a team and in the hugely challenging situation of the Baton Rouge shootings that claimed three lives in July.
“Probably the worst feeling for a police officer is not being able to do something,” Sgt. Jody Fahrig said of their eagerness to assist their fellow officers and particularly in Baton Rouge.
But they quickly mobilized even though they wondered whether if they’d come back to family and home.
Lt. Derek Pertuis said the parish’s entire Special Response Team went through three checkpoints to reach the crime scene in Baton Rouge despite it being a worst-case scenario for any police officer.
Pertuis said he and his wife told their daughter that he had to go to work, but not about the shooting.
“One of the hardest things I had to do that day was seeing my fiance’ crying as I left for work that day,” said Deputy Joshua DeZoche, who was working patrol the day he got the news about the shootings. “We want that fight. That’s why we do this.”
Fahrig said a deputy deals with a clear line of not having the luxury of emotion in life-or-death situations, which means the delayed processing of these emotions.
“One of the biggest things on this job is ‘Why?’ isn’t really fully explained in the things people do on a daily basis,” Fahrig added. “You never get that answer. You just have to live with it.”
Before the shootings, East Baton Rouge police officers were already exhausted from pulling additional patrols. St. Charles Parish deputies say they assisted on patrol so they could take a break.
According to Sgt. Walter Banks, “When we got the call, we knew there was a lot of stress, anger and violence going on. Then you get calls from family members concerned about them.”
Banks knew his wife was concerned about him going to East Baton Rouge when the shootings occurred, but he went.
“I made a decision a long time ago to put my safety and well being second to the public,” he said. “Officers run into situations where people are running away.”
Just weeks later, the deputies were called to assist in yet another major disaster in Louisiana when they assisted flood victims in Livingston Parish.
The Sheriff’s Office deployed the military vehicles for “high-water rescues.”
Fahrig said they dealt with the challenges of flood waters creating islands that required they leapfrog from water to land and water again.
Pertuis said they also dealt with sudden changes to reach people, such as bridges washing out and having to take long detours to reach a residence. He compared the water flow to the Colorado River, noting he saw it push a military vehicle weighing tons to the roadside.
Banks emphasized they volunteered to assist these people.
“It just shows where we are as a department,” he said. “We believe in what we’re doing. We believe in sacrifice and that’s across the board.”
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