VERMILION PARISH, La. (KLFY)– Candidates running for Vermilion Parish sheriff faced off Saturday night in a forum.

Candidates Lance Broussard, Preston Summers and Eddie Langlinais spoke in front of citizens about the changes they would bring to the parish to help with the ongoing crime in the area.

Langlinais said he wants to bring the community and law enforcement together as one, so they can fix the problems in the parish.

“Couple of positive things I want to bring is community policing,” Langlinais said. “I think there’s a gap that we need to bridge between the community and the police, and I think it would be an opportunity for us to be able to bridge that gap. Community leaders, which are pastors and our government leaders, to get together on common ground and to figure out what the issues are in the different communities and how we can correct those issues.”

Summers said he is focused on the youth and police being more engaged with each other and wants the youth to see that following the rules is great for everyone.

“School resource offices is one of my priorities,” Summers said. “I also want to bring more interaction between youth and law enforcement. We have a nehemiah project, boys and girls club, vermilion reach. There’s all kinds of organizations that we can utilize to improve interaction between the youth and this community and let the youth growing up see that law enforcement is good and. Playing by the rules is good for everybody in the parish.”

Kevin Williams, a pastor at Saint Mary Congregational Church, said it touched his heart to see the community come out tonight and said he is thankful to have been a part of the forum.

“It means a whole lot,” Williams said. “Reason why it means a whole lot to me is because this is Saint Mary Congregational Church, but it’s a historical church, given the fact that it’s a national registered landmark. Bringing all of that here today and being relevant in the community, still trying to make things better, still working hard, not just in the religious sense but in the real world sense. So being able to host this, being a part of this group, it just feels so good.”

Jessica Matthews was at a loss for words for how amazing the forum was and urges Black voters to vote in the upcoming elections.

“Awesome. It’s god fearing,” Matthews said. “Lost of words, but it was an awesome thing that was done tonight. Black voters matter. It’s all about us. Go out and vote.”

Broussard was also in attendance at the forum tonight.