Former Football: Mike Neustrom – 16 years of good faith

Daily Advertiser Editorial, July 9, 2016

Mike Neustrom’s leadership bore results for Lafayette. (Photo: SCOTT CLAUSE/THE ADVERTISER)

The Mike Neustrom era as sheriff ended not with a bang, but a reflection.

Lafayette’s most cerebral lawman, who left office July 1 after 16 years, was in search not of rest but of his next horizon, seeking not retirement as much as his next place to contribute.

He’s got plenty to do. He’s a master gardener. He’s a guitarist. He’s a husband and father and grandfather.

“It’s going to be a change,” Neustrom said of leaving office, “and with change there’s challenge and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

That challenge might come in the form of volunteer work with AMI Kids, which provides help and guidance to troubled youth. He helped establish that program. Neustrom spent much of his tenure as sheriff helping young people.

It might come in any number of efforts dedicated to helping the mentally ill, the homeless, the dispossessed. Neustrom tended to them all while sheriff, wielding not weapons as much as wisdom in leading that agency. The numbers suggest his efforts were profound and may be lasting.

Lafayette Parish Correctional Center reported 21 percent of inmates returned to LPCC custody across all department diversion programs. That’s one-third the national average, half the state average. Those numbers reflect not only a savings to taxpayers but savings of lives and futures for the former inmates.

Success followed innovation, hard work

Such success did not come easily. It took innovation and dedication to the idea that many community players must be involved in making law enforcement successful. For Neustrom, a former University of Louisiana at Lafayette professor, it meant following the data that oftentimes affirms success or reveals failures in new programs.

Neustrom increased the department’s capacity for using technology. He brought in new people, innovators in finance and corrections. He tried new approaches, sometimes successfully, sometimes less so. He promoted new forms of education.

“I wanted us to look at a different way of policing, look at community involvement and cost,” he said. “We asked people to come along with the new wave. It was not easy. It was gradual. It’s still a work in progress. Most have bought in.”

Indeed, Neustrom’s endorsement of Mark Garber in the 2015 election might have helped his successor win. Garber offers a bridge from the Neustrom era to his own, and the community should wish Garber well as he lends his own leadership, insights and good intentions to the Sheriff’s Office’s new direction.

As a community, Lafayette would do well to appreciate the forward steps the Sheriff’s Office has taken over the past 16 years. They made us stronger then, they will make us stronger in the years ahead.

That’s because Neustrom did not simply win a job or hold a job. He kept faith with voters, and made a difference.

Athletic Network footnote by Ed Dugas.

Click here for Dr. Neustrom’s Athletic Network profile.