Police chief, Civil Service board at odds over patrolman job description

The Eunice Fire and Police Civil Service Board and Chief Ronald Dies are engaged again in a debate over what is, or is not, allowed under civil service classifications.
The issue this time is whether patrol officers can be assigned to the detective division, or whether such assignment requires officers of at least sergeant rank.
Heretofore, the Eunice department has used officers at the entry grade on occasion in the detective ranks. But a complaint to the board formally raises the issue.
Both the board and Dies are seeking clarification from Baton Rouge civil service examiners.
The department’s line officer classifications are patrol, sergeant, lieutenant and deputy chief. There is no detective classification. In fact, a check at the state Civil Service website shows no department with that classification.
The gray area, as it pertains to Eunice’s thin blue line, stems from definition of the term “detectives” and their duties.
The civil service board decided that any officer beneath the rank of sergeant would be “working out of his class.” Dies has disagreed with the board in the past, enlisting patrolmen as detectives, according to one board official.
The issue is both philosophical and practical. If detectives must be sergeants or above, they must all come from the higher pay grades, meaning more sergeants and/or lieutenants are needed, which means more payroll expense.
Creation of a detective classification would create even more payroll stress, as law requires specific pay separation between grades.
“In the patrolmen’s job description, patrolling is one and doing initial investigations at a crime scene is another,” said Keith Vidrine, chairman of the Fire and Police Civil Service Board. “Any follow-up investigations after that would be done by detectives. And the follow-up investigations fall into the sergeant category, or sergeant’s class. The way we’ve interpreted it, and the way I’ve always interpreted it, is that if someone is going to be doing detective work, then they should be at least a sergeant.”
Dies disagrees, and has noted before that the patrolman’s job description includes the phrase “and any other duties assigned by the chief.”
Civil Service takes the position those other duties can’t incorporate duties of another, higher classification.
Vidrine said that the matter could go to the City Council if brought up by Chief Dies in the near future. Vidrine said that between the mayor, the council and the Fire and Police Civil Service Board, a change can be made to satisfy all parties involved.
“We can make the detective classification plan read however we want to,” said Vidrine. “As long as it is something that they are comfortable with, but as the classifications are written now, I don’t think that, in my opinion, the job duties of a detective fall under the classification of a patrolman. It has to be a sergeant.”
At the recent board meeting Dies hinted at possible need for more sergeants. However, more sergeants means more money allocated from the city budget.
Dies declined to comment further on the matter for this story, saying he would prefer waiting until receiving an opinion from Baton Rouge.