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January 15, 2015
After four years of exhibiting compassionate law enforcement behind a data driven system, the Thibodaux City Council reconfirmed Police Chief Scott Silverii to serve another four years.
“The reconfirmation is just affirmation that what we’ve done the first four years is in line with the administration of providing the highest quality of public service,” Silverii said.
Silverii previously worked for the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office for 21 years, most recently serving as patrol division commander.
In four years running operations in Thibodaux, Silverii has seen a steep reduction in crime under his watch.
The Thibodaux Police Department reports a 45.25 percent reduction in criminal damage to property, a 40 percent reduction in burglaries, a 51.16 percent reduction in robberies and a 34.91 percent reduction in theft.
Silverii credits the change on having an accountable and transparent community-policing model, implementing its data driven system – one which Silverii also helped the federal government implement.
The technology uses quantitative statistics to identify where crashes and crimes occur. Enlisting the help of GPS mapping, police create hot spots.
“There’s no magic or science behind it other than the quantitative statistics and mapping. That’s where we send our police officers, and there’s no surprise that when they get there they find that crime was occurring, and because we’re there, crime no longer occurs,” Silverii explained. “So people will say, ‘Those things are amazing,’ but we’re not surprised. That’s by design. It didn’t just happen. The last four years weren’t just a lucky swing of the bat. We designed it to be that way.”
Thibodaux Mayor Tommy Eschete said some people believe the data driven system works, and some don’t, but he feels the results speak for themselves.
“Although we’re not going to say everything’s perfect, we feel we’re moving in the right direction in regard to that,” Eschete said.
Additionally, Silverii prides his administration on his officers showing compassionate discretion depending on the severity of the offense. If a non-repeat offender is caught with a busted brake light, for instance, the driver will often receive a verbal warning or compliance citation – allowing the driver seven days to get the light fixed in order to avoid penalty.
“If your break lights are out, you probably don’t know that they’re out unless somebody tells you that they’re out so instead of burdening the public, our job is public safety, not revenue generation,” Silverii explained.”… Our goal is not to write you a ticket because your break light is out. The goal is to get you to fix your break lights.”
With every traffic stop made by officers, 64 percent end in a verbal warning, and 11 percent result in compliance citations. This compassion creates a better relationship between the public and law enforcement, according to Silverii, but it also gives officers a greater chance of stopping crime before it happens.
“We live in a very nomadic society,” the police chief said. “Everybody is going to get where they need to go via vehicle. Criminals will drive from point A to point B to victimize C, so where’s the best place to interact with potential criminals or victimizers? While they’re in transit, while they’re driving, so we make a lot of stops, personal contact where we identify people and check warrants. We’ve taken record number of fugitives off the streets but what that also does is we go out there. We’re public. We’re visible. It’s a detractor to crime.”
In the next four years, Silverii said his two focuses are to become more sophisticated in his department’s analysis of data and to improve leadership within his department. These improvements would help the police department better serve the public both in analytic and humanistic senses, according to Silverii.
“He’s helped me entertain the goals that I had set in reference to law enforcement, and we’re going to work forward to continuing that vision into the next four years,” Eschete said.”… I think as a rule the public is pleased with what we’ve done and if there was some public outcry with reference to law enforcement, we’d hear that and we don’t hear that so I think we’re moving in the right direction and hopefully in the next four years he can continue to be as successful as he was in the first four years.”
The Thibodaux City Council reconfirmed Police Chief Scott Silverii to serve for another four years.
