Mark Hebert: A career in law enforcement and service

By ROGER EMILE STOUFF
When former Sheriff David Naquin was first elected to office, he called in all employees for a conference.
Mark Hebert, recently retired sheriff, said everybody had to reapply by appointment.
“I was real active in the campaign,” Hebert recalled, but on the opposite team. “I always supported my bosses (at the time Sheriff Huey Bourgeois). We talked, and Naquin said, ‘Well, you might not be doing what you’ve been doing, but I’ll have something for you.’
“And I said, ‘Good, because I’m ready to move up the ladder.’”
And he did.
His road to law enforcement was one of necessity. “I’m a prodigy of the oil field,” Hebert said. “In the early 80s, when the oil field fell, I was looking for a job, doing two or three jobs at a time. My father in-law was a reserve (officer) in Baldwin and talking about law enforcement. I thought, ‘Well, law enforcement don’t pay a lot of money.’”
Hebert continued taking jobs as he could find them, but needed stability. His first child was on the way and he put in an application at the sheriff’s office and was eventually hired. “I was so excited to look at my payroll check: It was the same as my unemployment check.”
Though he said he had no intention of staying with the department, he began to enjoy the job. “I was a young guy. It was fun, I really liked it, and did all I could to excel at it. I made that career change early on and tried to live within my means.”
He started part-time, patrolling Cypremort Point, Burns Point and transferring prisoners, then moved to full-time under Sheriff Chester Baudoin.
In 1986 he was promoted to shift supervisor, then called the deputy in charge, and soon grew anxious to get back to “boots on the ground” so he actually stepped down. “I got back out and then in 1989 we started the narcotics task force, I stayed there until 1994.”
After that he moved to investigations and was promoted to lieutenant in charge of west St. Mary investigations. He was approached several times by the chief deputy to move to the jail. “I thought, too many wardens have come and gone, it’s got to be a problem with that job, so I was reluctant to take it,” Hebert said. “The chief came to me about the third time and said the sheriff really wanted me to take that job. So I took it.”
He surrounded himself with people who knew the ropes in running the old jail on the seventh floor of the courthouse. “It’s a very rewarding career,” he said. “There’s a lot to learn, a lot to learn, especially when we moved out to Centerville. It’s like running a city. You run a food service program, back then we ran our own medical program, work release program, you hold court inside…it was a challenge, and I love that. My motto was ‘I’ll never fail’ and I was always a hands-on guy.”
After Hebert served eight years as warden, Sheriff Naquin announced that he intended to retire, “We discussed the possibility of someone running, and I had aspirations. It was a slow methodical process getting out, meeting people.”
He won the following election in 2011. In 2014, just prior to the end of the election cycle, his wife Jill was diagnosed with cancer.
“That was a blow,” he said. “I was fortunate. We ran, and that second election was hard on me. I spent a lot of time with Jill, where I needed to be. I put faith in God, faith in the public, that the services we provided were to their liking the first four years. I didn’t spend a lot of money, or raise a lot of money, and it went well.”
Hebert said he feels blessed to be at a point in his career where he could retire. “Even if I wasn’t, I’d have made the decision to go home when I did. That’s where I needed to be and that’s where I was going.”
When he was first elected, he hit the ground running after learning from Naquin various aspects of the department’s operations. He was always involved with attorneys regarding litigations issues as well.
“In that seat, everybody has their own vision,” Hebert said. “Naquin had his vision and I wholeheartedly supported that vision. There were some things I might have done different, but you don’t question the sheriff; he got elected for a reason and you give him a hundred percent.”
A big part of Hebert’s vision was achieving Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. “That is a road map to success that a lot of law enforcement agencies don’t take advantage of,” he said. “It forces you to maintain standards of excellence in every little division you have, whether it be water patrol, finances, the jail, your evidence division…they come in and check you. The staff hated it…the CALEA people said they’d hate it.”
It was a long process that the department achieved in record time. “We just did our mock audit for this year and we were successful,” Hebert said. “Scott (Anslum) will get the accreditation in July. Scott is the guy I brought in when we first got the book and the manual…I brought him in at the entry level.”
That achievement and being warden were Hebert’s most rewarding experiences as sheriff.
Finances were often a frustration. “All the technology out there, all these things that can really enhance your investigations, cost money,” Hebert said. “We’ve always managed to streamline and we’ve upgraded a lot of our investigation tools and programs that have been a real success. We’ll always find ways.”
Technology won’t replace manpower and skills, he said. The department has been able to expand on its services: Two patrol boats, a command post, about $100,000 in diving gear for five certified divers, and those divers are trained as investigators as well. “Our department is well-diversified.”
In almost eight years as sheriff, Hebert said the issue of finances is often the most difficult hurdle. “You want to provide the best level of service, but it requires money,” he said. “Today taxes are not a friendly thing. Law enforcement is a service. You can streamline and be the most efficient man there, but if you’re losing a half million dollars of revenue every year, or a million, there’s no way to make it up. There’s no profit in services.”
Hebert said he never politicized the sheriff’s department’s needs, he only tried to get out the message. “We went from a $14 million budget to $11 million,” he noted.
Though he’s retiring, he said he’ll stay engaged with the parish. “I’ve been in law enforcement for almost 35 years. I’m not going to walk away from it. I’m going to do all I can to help the parish, get behind endeavors that can enhance any law enforcement agency in the parish. I respect the people that dedicate their lives doing it. I’ll always be a major part of that, even if it’s just on the ground giving moral support or helping get a message out. At the end of the day, I always just want to thank the people who supported the best interests of the parish to have good law enforcement. A lot of officers, they don’t get the credit, or the sacrifices they make, or in the financial world, because they chose to do something that is rewarding instead of financial.”