Is LSP Col. Lamar Davis’ focus on African American and female promotions causing a mass exodus of white male troopers at the agency?

Louisiana State Police Col. Lamar Davis, whose alleged recent statements (together with one captured on video) about focusing his efforts on promoting African Americans and females over white males has, according to numerous sources who’ve communicated both verbally and via emails to Sound Off Louisiana, resulted in a “mass exodus” of male white troopers over the last 18 months, with many allegedly falling into the 3-15 year experience range which is allegedly historically “unprecedented.”

Editor’s Note:  We want to stress that NONE of the material we present on this feature or on subsequent follow-up features was derived from any white male trooper who may be disgruntled by any promotional or hiring decision of Louisiana State Police (LSP) Col. Lamar Davis.  ALL of the material and statements have been derived from sources we deem EXTREMELY reliable but who have no active direct involvement with LSP either now or at the time the disclosures were made to us.

On March 22, 2022, we received a very unnerving email regarding concerns about Louisiana State Police (LSP) Col. Lamar Davis placing a very heavy focus on promoting and hiring African American individuals and females to the detriment (and alleged near-non-consideration) of white males.  The individual sending the email purported to represent “many troopers,” and stated that Col. Davis made a disturbing statement to the Senate Committee on Oversight of Louisiana State Police being chaired by State Sen. Franklin Foil (R-Baton Rouge).

We responded that we recalled hearing Davis make the statement but that it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack for us to try and isolate it.  It turned out we didn’t have to worry about doing the heavy lifting in that regard.  In a very, very rare move, this individual sent us a video file of Davis making his statement that allegedly provoked the ire of plenty of white male troopers across Louisiana.  Let’s take a look at that seven-second video clip at this time:

LSP Col. Lamar Davis testifies before the Louisiana Senate Committee on LSP Oversight that the agency has been historically comprised of “white males, ” and further states that the agency has, “got to make change.”

We sincerely hoped that Col. Davis would realize the error of blatantly isolating any race and/or gender for discrimination as a result of his perceived need to, “make change.”

Our hopes were soon dashed, however, as what began as a trickle of outrage expressed to us by a few LSP Trooper representatives quickly started rising to a flood of correspondence to us voicing extreme disdain for Col. Davis’ statement above, along with alleged subsequent highly-inflammatory statements he made at the Shreveport LSP Convention in early June of 2022 and subsequent “toned down” commentary he made to Troop A (Baton Rouge).

While we are refraining from publishing Davis’ alleged statements at Troop A, we will state that, if he in fact made them (and, as will be demonstrated on the next video, if we had an audio file of them, we would most certainly publish it), they are inexcusable!

At any rate, outrage over Davis’ alleged statements has now reached such a fever pitch that we feel that, similarly to the LSP Training Academy cheating scandal, we could no longer sit by while trooper outrage continued to fester over Davis’ recent actions and words.

Accordingly, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns opted to prepare the Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC) on Thursday, October 13, 2022 that, just as he’d prepped them for impending Sound Off Louisiana features on that cheating scandal, he was likewise prepping them for Sound Off Louisiana features on many white male troopers’ concerns entailing the fixation of Col. Davis on hiring and promoting African American and female individuals to the detriment of white males.  Here’s Burns’ commentary to the Commission in that regard:

Burns addresses white male troopers’ concerns entailing Col. Davis’ fixation on African Americans and females for promotions and hiring to the perceived detriment of such white males.  [NOTE:  Burns referenced in the video above comments Col. Davis allegedly made at “Troop F,” however, he misspoke and the correct event and location of the statements was the LSP Convention in early June in Shreveport, Louisiana.]

While Burns was focused on videotaping the meeting, he received reports that Lt. Col. Chavez Cammon was texting to someone as Burns made his commentary and that Cammon soon left the room, presumably to place a phone call with speculation that any such call was to Davis and entailed Burns’ commentary.

The only thing we can state is that, upon the first break for Executive Session, Cammon immediately approached Burns and expressed his displeasure with the fact that we intend to publish Burns’ commentary without providing Col. Davis the chance to provide, “his side.”  We responded to Lt. Col. Cammon that, “just tell us when and where you want our camera, and we’ll provide Col. Davis with the opportunity to fully state ‘his side’ of this matter and provide the assurance that not one second of his statements will be edited out.”  Cammon responded, “I’m going to take you up on that, and I’m about to reach out to Capt. (Nick) Manale now.”

At a subsequent break, Cammon, perhaps finding out that Davis is not receptive to such an interview, stated, “It’s still my desire that Col. Davis provide his side, but it’s ultimately up to the Colonel.  I’ve let Captain Manale know my position, and I’ve let you know my position.”

Burns acknowledged Cammon’s statement of his position and that the offer for Davis to appear on camera will continue to stand.  We also emphasized the fact that, though we feel we likely won’t obtain the documents due to an invoking of “right to privacy” once again, we are seeking the Exit Interviews of every single trooper having resigned or retired since Col. Davis took over as Colonel.

Cammon responded that, as a non-lawyer, he would be unable to state whether we’ll get the documents or not but stressed that, “I’ve looked over many of those exit interviews, and if you think you’re going to find one wherein a resigning trooper says, ‘Well, I got pissed off with the Colonel today, so I’m resigning,’ you’re just not going to find that.”

We then asked Cammon if he was willing to concede the fact that there has been a “mass exodus” of Troopers leaving LSP over the last 18 months, and he did in fact acknowledge that fact but quickly added, “You have to realize people resign for any number of reasons and sometimes the reason they’re saying to you that they’re resigning is not the real reason they’re leaving.”

We feel it’s important to document the fact that Davis has been afforded that interview opportunity, so we sent Captain Manale this email (copied to Lt. Col. Cammon) making it crystal clear that we’d be more than happy to accommodate Col. Davis regarding stating “his side” if he is so inclined.  The email speaks for itself, and we also made the request for the Exit Interviews.  Mere hours before we published this feature, Capt. Manale responded, and here’s his response:

—–Original Message—–
From: Nick Manale <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 17, 2022 3:27 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: Karen Roberts <[email protected]>; Denae Bering <[email protected]>; Melissa Matey <[email protected]>; Chavez Cammon <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Public Records Requests: Exit Interviews Upon Resignations/Retirements During the Davis Regime……Opportunity for Camera Time Should Col. Davis So Desire

 

Received,

We will begin working with our Human Resources staff to determine how many files are responsive during that time period and the necessary redactions of personal information.

 

Thanks

We’ll only draw attention to the fact that there is no response whatsoever to our continued invitation to Davis to be interviewed on the subject matter Burns addressed.

Now, regarding the tables Burns references that will be created in the above video, we’ve gone ahead and created the tables (one for promotions and one for retirements/resignations) so that everyone can see what the tables will look like once we’ve entered all of the material.  Admittedly, that is going to take some time to accomplish, particularly for the resignations/retirements, and the reason for that is that there has in fact been an absolute mass exodus of troopers from LSP within the last 18 months.  Here are the tables with one initial entry in each (the promotion entails Trooper Julia Amanda Willis for a Sergeant position in Troop D):

If Col. Davis will grant the interview, we’ve committed that we won’t edit out one second of what he has to say, but we can also forewarn him that we have some very, very harsh commentary which has been supplied to us, and we most definitely will ask him for his thoughts on that commentary.

Just hang on folks because we’ll again quote Retired LSP Lt. Leon “Bucky” Millet in saying, “Things are likely to get very interesting!”  That’s especially the case given that one of our most reliable sources on LSP matters (who is not Leon “Bucky” Millet) has told us that Davis is, “offended and furious at the disrespect for what he is doing.”

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