Lafayette, La. (KLFY) -- One Acadiana, as part of their Civic-con series, hosted a public forum tonight at the Acadiana Center for the Arts. This event was headlined by Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Blanco Boulet and Lafayette Police Chief Paul Trouard, answering questions in a town-hall type format.

"We're here to communicate with the public, we have to have that open and honest communication going back and forth," Trouard said.

"It's fun for the people to get to know him," Boulet added. "To see us together, that relationship is important in the city, the mayor and police chief."

Both the mayor-president and the police chief shared their united vision for what policing has looked like and will continue to look like under their tenures. Boulet said she is proud of what the police department has accomplished under Trouard's leadership.

"He's made some phenomenal adjustments in the police department," Boulet said. "Chief Trouard is very open to the community, to the issues we have, to finding out root causes and finding out solutions to those problems."

Mission number one was to bring stability to a department, which has had six different police chiefs in four years, but it wasn't the only thing on the list of things to reform.

"We strengthened patrol, we increased our recruiting and started building our patrol section, so we have a faster response team, more officers out there to go on calls," Trouard said.

It's also been made a priority to build a bond with the community.

"We need to get out and speak to the public." Trouard said.

These efforts have also boosted morale within the department and the recruitment of officers. When Chief Trouard started his tenure, he had fifty vacancies within the department, now, there are two applicants for every open position.

"Officers feel supported, and also know they have the opportunity to grow and learn and become better officers every day," Boulet said.

When it comes to keeping the public in the know through events such as these, Chief Trouard is committed to doing more in the future.

"It's all about transparency and informing everyone what their police department is doing."

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