by Wesley Harris
This week the staff of the Lincoln Parish Journal sat down with newly-minted Ruston Police Chief Eric Watson.
It was a good meeting. We were impressed by what we heard from the 25-plus year law enforcement veteran.
Watson has big plans, make that huge plans, to develop a partnership with citizens and other law enforcement agencies to best serve the community.
We won’t go into all the details of his ideas, many of which are just now being revealed to the staff, but Watson intends to implement strategies to make RPD more responsive and more agile, increasing its effectiveness.
Watson, a retired federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent who worked for RPD in the nineties, was not looking for a retirement job. In fact, he may work harder than any time in his career to get RPD where he wants it.
It won’t happen overnight. Change comes hard. First, you have to convince people of the need for change. Then you have to organize their involvement in the change. They must buy in, Watson said. And if that fails, bring them along kicking and screaming into a new way of thinking about police work. A modern way of thinking.
It won’t be easy, but it’s been done in organizations around the country that sought new ways to solve old problems.
Watson has the advantage of having some great people at RPD.
One theme the new chief emphasized requires a commitment from partner law enforcement agencies. Watson sees fostering a “we’re all in this together” mentality with the Lincoln Parish Sheriff’s Office, Louisiana Tech Police, and other local law enforcers as critical.
He wants to develop lines of communication from throughout his department into those agencies.
“Our officers don’t know the sheriff’s deputies and state troopers and vice versa like they once did,” he said.
He attributes part of that to the hectic pace officers keep up much of the day. But it’s no excuse, he said.
And he’s a step ahead on that idea in the sense he has worked with the leaders of those agencies before, some dating back to his time as a RPD patrol officer decades ago.
Knowing those department heads like we do, we know they will work with him.
Watson’s vision regarding leadership development within the agency is sure to pay dividends well into the future. Expect to see officers receive extensive training. His idea of collateral responsibilities—giving officers special duties in addition to their regular assignments—has proved successful elsewhere.
For example, some agencies cross train patrol officers as evidence specialists to help investigators at crime scenes. Certain officers might receive advanced training and then be empowered to handle juvenile matters or major traffic crash investigations.
As a news source for our community, we were happy to hear the chief’s plans for enhancing communication with the public, not only in the transparent dissemination of crime news citizens need to know but revealing the human side of the RPD. That’s something we heartily endorse.
The Lincoln Parish Journal will help Chief Watson share his vision for RPD. And we will continue to equip citizens for a role in keeping our community safe.
