AG’s Office: Sheriff must perform all of his duties

After receiving an official opinion from the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, it should be clear to Evangeline Parish Sheriff Eddie Soileau that no matter the financial state of his department, the sheriff is required to perform law enforcement duties.
On September 1, 2016, two weeks after Soileau declared that his office was officially broke and was forced to make a “massive amount of layoffs,” the sheriff’s office’s civil attorney Jonathan C. Vidrine requested an opinion from the attorney general on whether the sheriff “can legally operate without having law enforcement duties and just having his tax collection matters and his civil service of process.”
The request for this opinion was made two weeks before Soileau was granted approval from the state bond commission to borrow $1 million to help him run his office.
In the attorney general’s opinion, which was released on Wednesday, December 14, 2016, it stated “law enforcement is Sheriff Soileau’s constitutional duty, and no sheriff may cease to perform legally mandated functions for any reason.”
The written opinion then continued, “A sheriff’s duties are specified first and foremost by the Louisiana Constitution which provides: The sheriff shall be the chief law enforcement officer in the parish,... and shall execute court orders and process. He shall be the collector of state and parish ad valorem taxes and such other taxes and license fees as provided by law.”
Although the law seems fairly cut and dry, the attorney general’s opinion however does shed light on gray areas that exist when it comes to the duties of a Louisiana sheriff and how their required responsibilities should be implemented.
According to the attorney general’s opinion, “sheriffs have discretionary authority in how to execute certain functions of the office,” and that they could not cite a statute that forbids a sheriff from choosing “not to appoint deputies to assist in his law enforcement role.”
However, even with the discretion that the constitution provides a sheriff when it comes to executing certain functions, the attorney general’s opinion stated, “A sheriff is afforded no discretion in which of his legal duties to perform.”
Knowing this, the attorney general’s opinion closed with a statement that makes it clear that the attorney general’s office believes that the sheriff is most definitely required to provide law enforcement in his jurisdiction.
The opinion closed with, “It is our opinion that no public official may choose to shrug a yoke his office bears by Constitutional decree.”