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VILLE PLATTE — The practice of putting people "on ice" began so long ago in Evangeline Parish that no one still wearing a badge can recall its origin. But over the years, the so-called investigative holds became as much a part of policing here as pat-downs and parking tickets. For as long as anyone can remember, the U.S. Justice Department reported recently, anyone walking the streets could be taken into custody for questioning if detectives had the slightest hunch they knew something about a crime — or perhaps knew someone who did. They were jailed indefinitely without probable cause or charges, let alone access to a telephone or an attorney.
The Justice Department report includes shocking anecdotes, including a 2014 case in which Ville Platte police detained a woman they believed had witnessed an armed robbery and shooting while she was grocery shopping. Even after she told investigators she had no information about the crime, the police came to her home and took her — along with her boyfriend and a 16-year-old — into custody. "Officers strip-searched the woman, who was menstruating at the time, and forced her to remove her tampon," the report says, adding that the woman was then placed in the jail's general population for hours without sanitary products before being questioned by detectives. Meanwhile, the woman's boyfriend and the 16-year-old were placed in separate cells and detained for hours.
