Washington Parish Sheriff Randy Seal has been selected to receive the 2014 Louisiana Support Enforcement Partnership Award to be presented Thursday at the Sen. Russell B. Long Awards Ceremony and Luncheon in Lafayette.

The awards ceremony is part of the agenda for the annual training conference for the Louisiana Support Enforcement Association. Seal was nominated for the award by the Child Support Division of the Office of District Attorney and the Department of Children and Family Services.

The nomination stated:

“In late 2012, newly-elected Washington Parish Sheriff Randy Seal contacted the District Attorney’s Office to suggest that we organize a roundup strictly for those persons having child support attachments. Little did we know that Sheriff Seal’s suggestion would result in likely the most successful one-day roundup in DCFS history.

Sheriff Seal’s commitment to the roundup was evident from the beginning as he brought to the table not only the resources of his own office, but provided partners from the police departments for the city of Bogalusa and the town of Franklinton, as well as the State of Louisiana Department of Corrections/Rayburn Correctional Facility and Office of Probation and Parole.

While DCFS and the DA’s office provided verification that the attachments being targeted were valid and gave recent locate information for those potential arrestees, including rap sheets to target those with violent offender histories, the Sheriff’s Office and other law enforcement partners brought their tactical expertise to the table with a well thought out and thorough plan to arrest as many people as possible.

Beginning at 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, Sheriff Seal, his partners and members of the DCFS arrest team organized into 14 teams with 56 team members and saturated one community at a time as they moved from the east side of the parish to the west. Stationed at the jail were DA and DCFS supervisors, who intaked arrestees as they were brought in.

The round-up was held on a regular collection court date, and Sheriff Seal continued to work his magic by holding the persons arrested until they could be brought to the courtroom to have their attachments addressed by the hearing officer. The jail personnel continued the shuttle of arrestees to court well into the night.

By the end of the round-up, 75 non-custodial parents had been arrested with 106 attachments being executed/cleared. These 75 non-custodial parents owed a total of $1,564,852.20, and we collected $24,235.27 on 25 cases by March 4, 2013.

Sheriff Seal’s ability to rally other law enforcement agencies to assist in the roundup was crucial to the success of the project. Sheriff Seal is a team player, and his commitment to addressing the problem of non-payment of child support is clearly evident. He has recently initiated the scheduling of a second child support roundup. Stay tuned for the results of that round-up!”

When notified that he was the recipient of the 2014 award, stated, “I am humbled and honored to have been selected to receive this year’s award. I accept it on behalf of all of the hardworking employees of the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office of the 22nd Judicial District, the Department of Children and Family Services and the other law enforcement agencies and personnel who unselfishly assisted in this endeavor. This was our first

dead-beat parent round-up, but it certainly will not be the last. Any biological parent who fails in their duty to support their own child will be held accountable. There is always room in the Washington Parish Jail for one more dead-beat parent or anyone else who violates the law.”