About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

2006-2007 Louisiana Attorney General Reports and Opinions 1 (2006-2007)

handle is hein.sag/sagla0006 and id is 1 raw text is: December 15, 2006
Opinion Number 06-0003
71 Municipalities
77 Officers
Chief Phillip Lucas
Town of Mansura             La. R.S. 33:404
1832 Le'Glise Street        There is no statutory mandate that requires a
P. 0. Box 157               municipality  to  provide  a  building  owned  by  the
Mansura, 7A 71350           municipality to the town's police department.
Dear Chief Lucas:
This office is in receipt of your opinion inquiry regarding whether the Town
Council or Mayor of Mansura can deny your request to relocate the Mansura
Police Department to another building located in the Town of Mansura. It is
noted that the Town of Mansura is a Lawrason Act town and you are the town's
elected Chief of Police. You have informed us that the current building in which
the police department is operating is in need of repairs due to hurricane damage,
and you would like to relocate the police department to a vacant building owned
by the Town of Mansura. For the answer to your request, we turn to La. R.S.
33:404 and past Attorney General Opinions relating to similar issues concerning
supervisory authority of a Mayor over an elected Chief of Police.
In La. Atty. Gen. Op. No. 02-39, this office cited La. R.S. 33:404 which states,
(T)he Mayor in a Lawrason Act community shall supervise and direct the
administration and operation of all municipal departments, offices, and agencies,
other than a police department with an elected chief of police. In concurrence
with this statute and the case of Coqswell v. Town of Loqansport, 321 So.2d 774
(La. App 1975), this office has repeatedly observed that the chief of police has
inherent power or authority to supervise and direct the administration and day to
day operations of the police department and assign personnel and equipment,
and the mayor may not revoke the inherent powers of an elected chief of police.
However, in La. Atty. Gen. Op. No. 94-536, we stated, (A) municipality should
provide sufficient office space for the efficient operation of the police department,
but find no statutory mandate that such space must be provided.
Therefore, it is the opinion of this office that the Town Council and the Mayor of
Mansura can deny your request to move into the vacant building. This opinion is

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most