BATON ROUGE – Sheriff Sid Gautreaux reflected on the trying year as he handed over the reigns of the Louisiana Sheriff's Association recently.

Gautreaux was the 71st president of the organization and completed his tenure as the head of the group – serving during a year of tragedy and high stress in the parish he polices.

“Serving as President of LSA has been the pinnacle of my law enforcement career,” Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said. “To be selected by my peers to represent the collective office of ‘sheriff’ has been an honor and responsibility comparable to none. And while I had aspirations of doing what I could to help further the goals of LSA, it turns out that I needed the organization more than ever. In my more than 40 years in law enforcement I have never experienced such difficulties as we did this past summer. But, I have also never been a part of such collaboration and cooperation as we have today in large part due to this association.  I can’t begin to express my gratitude for the overwhelming response of support and personnel through the LSA Task Force. While our agency personnel might have been stretched and resources exhausted, we instead found ourselves having to turn down offers of support from throughout the state. The prayers and pledges of solidarity from all our sheriffs through the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association was and is a tremendous blessing.”

 LSA honored Gautreaux with an award for Distinguished Leadership, Steadfast Courage, Devotion to Duty and Unbounded Dedication to the Ideals of Louisiana’s Chief Law Enforcement Officers.

Vermillion Parish Sheriff Mike Couvillon is the incoming president of the LSA.