FERRIDAY — Ferriday police are looking for missing equipment signed out to employees who left or were fired during the past four years, but FPD consultant John Cowan is confident the items will be returned.

During the November board meeting, the Ferriday Board of Aldermen elected to contact the Louisiana State Police to ask for help in auditing equipment, but Cowan said Wednesday he thinks it is a matter the department can handle internally.

“If needed, we will call them and ask to help with the investigation,” Cowan said. “As of right now, I think we can get it all taken care of.”

Cowan was placed in charge of the department on a temporary basis earlier this month after Mayor Sherrie Jacobs suspended Chief Arthur Lewis for a Dec. 2 incident.

The missing equipment includes stun guns, badges, radios and uniforms, but not firearms, Cowan said.

The state police will not get involved unless the investigation into the missing equipment becomes a criminal matter. Assistant Ferriday Police Chief Bruce Wiley said at Tuesday’s board of aldermen meeting the town had not been able to track down invoices related to the equipment purchases.

Wiley said the invoices are needed to prove former employees did not turn equipment in before a crime can be charged.

Jacobs said at the meeting former Mayor Gene Allen informed her the documents were kept, but she had not been able to locate the information.

Wiley said he could not say how many former employees are involved or how much equipment is missing.

On Wednesday afternoon Cowan said the inventory documents had been located.

Following a brief investigation, Cowan said he intends to issue warrants for the arrests of all former personnel who have any type of equipment signed out to them that they have not returned.

Cowan said if the former employees return the equipment before the warrants are issued, he would not pursue charges.

“It is a sign of good faith,” he said. “Either way we go, we just have to get the equipment back. It represents a great sum of money.”

Cowan said he did not know at this time how much money is tied up in missing equipment.

Anyone with information on the missing equipment is asked to call Ferriday Police Department at 318-757-3606.