At the request of Chief Jean Paul Broussard, the Youngsville City Council was asked in June to adopt a resolution authorizing the submission of an application to begin the Police Department’s accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Council members had questions. They asked about the cost, the accuracy of information contained in the application, and the wisdom of beginning a three-year process only months before voters could elect a new chief of police.
Then they voted to wait. Chief Broussard ignored them.
Council Decision Cast Aside
Despite the Council’s 3-1 vote to table the authorization, Broussard subsequently submitted an application to CALEA. On July 23, 2026, CALEA approved Youngsville for its Agency Support Program. By August 4, 2026, Broussard was being congratulated and provided the documents necessary to begin the accreditation process.
Mayor Ritter apparently learned about it afterward. Ritter sent a message to members of the City Council on August 14:
“I’ve been informed that Chief Broussard applied for the CALEA grant despite your direction at the June 11, 2026 council meeting. I do not have a copy of that application as it did not contain my signature.”
The problem is bigger than a disagreement over whether Youngsville needs an accreditation logo on its letterhead or whether there is money in the current year’s budget to cover the upfront cost. Documents presented to the Council show that Broussard specifically requested approval for the Mayor to execute the application. Proposed Resolution 2026-17 stated that Broussard “has requested approval and execution” of the CALEA Agency Support Program application and would have authorized Ritter to execute it. The Council declined.
Checks and Balances
The June 11, 2026 council discussion lasted more than 20 minutes, and it became increasingly apparent that council members were uncomfortable approving something when even basic questions about the financial commitment could not be answered by Chief Broussard. It is further alarming when you consider that discussions with CALEA to start the process began a year ago — as early as August of 2025.
Councilman Nick Niland wanted actual numbers:
“I don’t want to sign off on something just in good faith that we are going to get this grant and then we don’t… and then we go through it anyway, and then we’re paying for it. It’d be nice to know whole numbers…”
Other council members were concerned about something even more fundamental: an election was approaching. One council member observed that Youngsville had previously made major decisions immediately before leadership changes, only to leave the next administration dealing with the consequences.
Councilman Lindy Bolgiano stated:
“We’ve made a lot of decisions, literally coming into an election and leadership being changed, and then it changes, and then we get stuck with the aftermath…”
That concern was particularly relevant because Chief Broussard acknowledged that accreditation takes up to three years. Ultimately, Niland moved to table the item until the requested information could be provided. The Council approved the motion 3-1. However, instead of returning to the Council with that information, the application was executed and forwarded to CALEA.
What was CALEA told?
The application presented to the Council contains several representations about Youngsville’s government and its commitment to accreditation that are difficult to reconcile with what actually happened on June 11, 2026. The application tells CALEA:
“both the Mayor and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the city have expressed support for the police department to pursue law enforcement accreditation.”
Elsewhere, it goes considerably further:
“the Chief of Police has received a confirmation from the Mayor and City CEO that future CALEA accreditation costs will be provided to the police department in annual budgets.”
Then:
“The Chief, Mayor, and City CEO have agreed to provide future funding to fully pay for the reaccreditation process.”
Those assertions are hard to square with Mayor Ritter’s August e-mail to members of the Council. More importantly, CALEA’s application does not merely ask whether city officials generally support a nebulous idea of accreditation. Its certification section requires an official to attest that the agency “has received approval from its governing authority to apply for and subsequently enroll in a CALEA accreditation program.” The governing authority is the Council, and Chief Broussard knows exactly what they decided at the June 11, 2026, meeting.
It also has a section for an attestation that the governing authority approved the expenditures necessary to enroll in the program.
The copy presented to the Council contains a blank signature and notary section. Citizens for a New Louisiana has requested the final executed and notarized application that was submitted to CALEA. As of this writing, Chief Broussard has not responded to our request.
What was wrong with the policies?
There is another curious contradiction buried in the application. During the June 11 meeting, Niland asked Broussard whether YPD’s existing policies were already up to CALEA standards. Broussard’s response was while straightforward:
“They were written to CALEA standards prior to my arrival. We have been tweaking them to help with the newer CALEA standards.”
That makes sense. Youngsville’s policy framework was substantially borrowed from the Lafayette Police Department, a much larger municipal civil service agency that is already CALEA accredited. But the application Broussard approved tells a decidedly different story:
“Prior to beginning the CALEA process, we thought that our policies and procedures provided adequate and proper guidance for the department. As we have begun to move through the process, we have learned that this is not the case.”
Which is it? Were Youngsville’s policies already “written to CALEA standards,” requiring updates as standards evolved? Or did the department discover that its policies failed to provide “adequate and proper guidance”? Perhaps the more important question has nothing to do with what is written in a policy manual. CALEA accreditation isn’t simply an exercise in putting the right policies on paper. The department must follow those policies, document that compliance, and devote staff time to collecting and maintaining the evidence CALEA will use to determine whether those standards were actually followed. And we have already witnessed two years of very questionable practices.
An application riddled with problems
Council members were already discovering problems with the application while discussing it June 11. At one point, the application inexplicably refers to the “Crete Police Department” instead of Youngsville. More consequentially, the application states:
“Chief Jean Paul Broussard is in the middle of his four-year term as of December of 2026.”
There are a few problems with that statement. December 2026 has not yet arrived, and the application was presented in June. Additionally, Chief Broussard is presently serving in the second year of an unexpired term. More importantly, Youngsville voters — not the author of a CALEA application — will decide who will be serving as Chief after the November 3 election.
A “Free” Grant That Costs Money
CALEA ultimately awarded Youngsville a fee waiver valued at $9,650, or, as one public official termed it, “a coupon.” But accepting the award does not mean that Youngsville incurs no costs.
The subsequent agreement requires the City to pay $2,750 within 30 days after execution. Another $2,750 becomes due when YPD requests its initial assessment. If the department withdraws from the accreditation process after signing the agreement, the initial $2,750 becomes a nonrefundable termination fee. After accreditation, CALEA’s current published continuation fee for an agency of YPD’s size is approximately $4,065 annually. However, those cash fees may be among the smallest costs associated with the undertaking.
YPD’s application states that it has already designated an Accreditation Manager who will:
- Coordinate the process
- Track the department’s progress
- Review existing policies for noncompliance
- Develop and revise policies
- Collect supporting documentation
- And work with CALEA throughout the process.
The application contemplates that work continuing throughout the 36-month accreditation period.
The lieutenant assigned to that role earns $80,792.48 in annual wages alone. Even if accreditation consumed only 20 percent of his working time, that represents more than $16,000 per year — or approximately $48,500 over three years — in wages devoted to the accreditation effort. At 25 percent, the three-year wage cost exceeds $60,000.
Costs Don’t Stop There
Those figures do not include employee benefits, retirement contributions, training, travel, software, or the work performed by other members of the department. The application itself states that an “Internal Accreditation Team composed of command staff and key personnel” has already been established, indicating that the labor commitment extends beyond a single employee. The application also specifically identifies Accreditation Manager training and PowerDMS as future accreditation-related expenses. These were precisely the kinds of “whole numbers” Councilman Nick Niland couldn’t get from Broussard, resulting in the Council voting to table the application.
Niland’s concerns are not misplaced. The Youngsville Police Department sales tax fund is expected to finish the year with a fund balance of only $64,928. Remember the representation made a few months ago to the court by attorneys representing the City of Youngsville Police Department? It said that compliance with a court order reinstating a wrongfully terminated officer, Lloyd Henry, would impose an “extreme financial and operational burden” on the City and Police Department.
It now appears to be partially true. The Youngsville Police Department sales tax fund is not expected to close the year with enough money in reserve to cover the reinstatement and back pay for Lieutenant Henry.
Signing the accreditation agreement also starts the clock. YPD would have 36 months from execution of the agreement to achieve accreditation. That means the City could spend taxpayer money today to begin a process that a newly elected Chief may decide in a matter of months that he does not want to continue, or is not as much a priority as addressing staff retention, training, and the fundamental duties of all law enforcement agencies — public safety.
The Council already made its decision
Whether CALEA accreditation is beneficial is almost beside the point. Perhaps Youngsville should pursue accreditation. Perhaps it shouldn’t. There will be plenty of time after the election for Youngsville’s next Chief of Police to make that case. Then the Council can decide whether the cost and commitment are justified.
More importantly, the Council has already considered the application. Members asked questions Broussard could not answer, identified problems in the documents, questioned the financial commitment, and raised concerns about beginning a three-year undertaking immediately before an election. They voted 3-1 to wait for more information and corrections to the application.
The application went forward anyway. Now the same governing authority is being asked to spend money and begin the very process it declined to authorize just two months ago. The issue is no longer simply whether CALEA accreditation is worthwhile.
The question is why the Police Chief decided the Council’s vote didn’t matter.
###
Facts First. Even When They’re Inconvenient.
Some outlets or groups tell you what to think. Others have discovered there’s an easier way to build an audience: tell people exactly what they want to hear. We’ve chosen a harder path.
At Citizens for a New Louisiana, we start with the evidence — public records, financial disclosures, court filings, voting records, audits, and original documents — and follow it wherever it leads. Sometimes the facts confirm what we expected. Sometimes they surprise us. Sometimes they disappoint our friends. Either way, we publish them.
That approach doesn’t always produce the loudest headlines or the easiest fundraising. But over time, it produces something much more valuable: TRUST. If you value independent Louisiana journalism that puts evidence ahead of outrage and principle ahead of tribe, please help us continue the work.
Become a Monthly MemberContribute $10 NowMake a Tax Deductible Gift
Already have a donor-advised fund? Ask your DAF administrator about recommending a grant to New Louisiana Foundation.
