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Sheriff
Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office, Louisiana
| Appointee | Susan Hutson |
|---|---|
| Role | Sheriff |
| Organisation | Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office, Louisiana |
| Domain | Law Enforcement |
| Start | 2 May 2022 |
| End | 4 May 2026 |
| Notes | First woman elected on her own record as sheriff in Louisiana (Orleans Parish); state's first Black woman sheriff |
Susan Hutson defeated four-term incumbent Marlin Gusman in the December 2021 Orleans Parish runoff election with 53 per cent of the vote and was sworn in on 2 May 2022 at The Fillmore in New Orleans. She was the first woman elected sheriff of Orleans Parish and the first Black woman elected sheriff in the state of Louisiana.
The Louisiana context
Three women had held a Louisiana parish sheriff's office before Hutson — Eudora Day in East Baton Rouge Parish (1924–1928), Florence Lewis Aycock in St. Mary Parish (1949–1952), and Eloise Bouanchaud Evans in Pointe Coupee Parish (1956–1960). Each took office through widow succession after the death of her husband, the sitting sheriff. Day subsequently won an April 1924 election in her own right, but the initial pathway in all three cases was inheritance from a deceased spouse, not a competitive selection by the parish electorate.
Hutson's 2021 election is the first time a Louisiana parish electorate chose a woman for the sheriff's office without that pathway. The dataset treats the widow-succession sequence as documented historical context but does not record it as an active first-woman selection event.
Background
Hutson came to the office from criminal-justice reform and police-oversight work. She had served as New Orleans Independent Police Monitor for roughly a decade before running for sheriff, with prior experience in the Los Angeles Police Commission and the US Department of Justice civil-rights division. Her campaign emphasised compliance with the Orleans Parish Prison federal consent decree and mental-health diversion.
Tenure
Hutson served one four-year term. She lost the October 2025 election to Michelle Woodfork, a 22-year veteran of the New Orleans Police Department, who took office in 2026. The 2025 election made Hutson the first Orleans Parish sheriff in modern times to lose a re-election bid.
Sources
- Susan Hutson — Wikipedia
- CNN — Susan Hutson is elected the first female sheriff of Orleans Parish and Louisiana's first Black female sheriff (2021-12-12)
- The Lens — Susan Hutson sworn in as sheriff (2022-05-02)
- nola.com — Susan Hutson becomes first woman to serve as Orleans Parish Sheriff
- The Advocate (Baton Rouge) — The intriguing tale of EBR's first and only female sheriff (Eudora Day, 1924)
- Trailblazers for Justice — Black Sheriffs Memorial
