Sessions future in jeopardy if tickets continue

A new administration that has been working better in recent years with the Town Council in Pearl River has brought about many positive changes for the small community to the north of Slidell.
For close to 30 years in the past the Town Aldermen meetings were close to a riot with yelling and screaming between public officials on the podium, the mayor and residents in the audience. The idea that the growing town was getting a lot done to improve things for the residents was hard to see.
But from the time the administration began to change, especially in 2022 when Joe Lee became the new mayor, the change in perception of Pearl River has been largely positive with major improvements in their sewer system, the water system, drainage and recreation—things that would not have happened in years past with the mayor and Town Council usually at odds.
That’s why the last thing the town needs is a reputation of being a speed trap, something that has now surfaced for the second time in eight years.
The front page story in The Slidell Independent today details the second time the small police department is writing what is very clearly in inordinate amount of speeding tickets. That can’t be disputed with the excuse of “it’s for public safety” when the Pearl River Police Department wrote an average of 440 tickets a month for 2024—more than twice the number the much larger Slidell Police Department writes!
Additionally, dissension between the mayor, Town Council members and the police department is back at an all-time high since aldermen and the mayor get constant calls from the public complaining about as many as three of the five police cars have been seen writing tickets on Interstate 59 much of the time.
Sessions and Major David Dean, who oversees the operations of the force, make no excuses for the large number of tickets they write. They claim it’s about keeping people safe, so they don’t deal with fatalities. But how many of the tickets are being written in the town limits where the speed limit is normally no higher than 45? It is hard to believe those supposed speeders are flying through town at 70 or more and might kill someone.
Pearl River has done a lot to effectively handle the growth that continues to come their way, since it is the new escape from Slidell residents looking for a little more space, as well as peace and quiet.
The cooperation between the mayor’s office and the Town Council is tremendously improved compared to years ago, and that’s why the last thing the town needs is to have a reputation as a speed trap for anyone who dares to venture into the city limits.
Public safety is one thing, but 440 tickets a month is another thing. It is clearly far out-of-hand, and if Police Chief Jack Sessions hopes to win his next re-election, he needs to re-evaluate the work done by Dean’s force.
The last chief that was writing a lot of tickets, even fewer than Dean’s group, was soundly defeated in his re-election bid after The Slidell Independent story was published. Odds are, Session will be looking at an uphill battle to win his third term if he continues on the present course.