OPSO Mourns the Passing of Sgt Perry Mercer

In May of 1987, Perry H. Mercer, Jr. applied to work at the Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office. After an employee background check Pat Mercer, as he was known to us, was hired and sworn in as a deputy with our department. According to our records, Pat Mercer stated that the reason he wanted to work for OPSO was for the “honor and dignity” that working for the Sheriff’s Department brings.
Prior to working at OPSO – Pat Mercer had a very successful career of 35 years as automobile mechanic. Pat had good recommendations from a large variety of people, from his minister and friends to customers, whose cars he had worked on in the past.

In some of his work performance reviews, Pat is described as “a hard worker who learns fast”, “meticulous about the detail of his work” and “as a person who worked well with the other deputies and also with the inmates” – which translated to those same inmates putting forth more effort to please him.

Pat received 5 letters of commendation through his tenure with OPSO. These ranged from Supervisors, and co-workers, to people from the public and even a Sheriff from another parish.

In August 1990, Pat was promoted to Shop Supervisor and shortly after that he was promoted to Corporal. In June 1994, Pat was awarded Deputy of the Month – for his hard work at maintaining the fleet of cars at the shop there at OCC. In July 2000, Pat was again promoted to Sergeant, over the shop. In August 2009, Pat was transferred from the shop to the Work Release Program.