LAFAYETTE, La. — John Trahan Jr., Kip Judice, Nathan Broussard, and Reggie Thomas hope to become the next Lafayette City Marshal.
These men are running to replace Brian Pope, who has been indicted several times and convicted in the first criminal case filed against him, while the rest are pending.
Pope tried to run but was disqualified. He has not been working since October 2018, when he was convicted on four felony counts.
Pope still faces two felony indictments, as well as state ethics charges. After his suspension, retired Federal Magistrate and former Lafayette Police Officer C. Michael Hill took over the job and ran the office.
Question: Why are you running for city marshal?
John Trahan: "Our community needs someone that can unify everyone, and with my diverse training, I want to unify Lafayette. Lets stop letting it the north and south Lafayette. Lets make it one lafayette"
Kip Judice: "I believe we live in the best city in the state. And in the nation, and I think they deserve a city marshal for a high level of integrity, made his way through the ranks, and brings a good plan to the city marshals office"
Nathan Broussard:"I feel that it is my calling to be the city marshal, my main objective is give the marshals office back to the community"
Reggie Thomas: "The reason im running for city marshal, for 30 years i've served the community of Lafayette. I call myself a community guy, I love the community"
Question: How will the experience help you?
Trahan: "The networking I have from my career, when we network together and unify as one, we can all become better. We have to be open minded. We have to be transparent with our citizens, we have to be transparent what's going on in our office with that transparency also we have to be actionable and take action what has to be done."
Judice: "When you know how to do the job, and you know how to manage people, it's a much easier task. no job training for me, I've done it all I can walk in day one and be a marshal with a high integrity, efficient, and effective"
Broussard: "I'm the only one who has been at the marshals office for 20 years. I didn't have to ask anybody what the marshal's office does. I've trained all 26 employees there. i know their husbands, their wives, their kids, as of day one of swearing in, i know the good parts of people, what their really good at and what their not good at. all"
Thomas:"One of the thing with the marshal office, they were accredited, accreditation is very important, it is the written directives you need to run the organization. they are no longer accredited now at the Lafayette city police department, I was a part of accrediting the Lafayette police department on two different occasions"
Question: What will the first 100 days look like?
Trahan: "I want to survey the employees of the marshal office, speak to the judges, and ask them, see how can we make the marshal office better serve the public. I want to i also want to reach the community, and ask the community, how can we better serve them and how can we be more transparent while serving them, and ask what they need"
Judice: "If you have a court date in the city of Lafayette, you'll get a text alert reminder of that court date. You'll always know you have a court date coming. Second of all, if you fail to appear, as opposed to going to jail you'll be asked to do community service, instead of incarnation, to save the tax payers money".
Broussard: "I will do an audit. I will let the community and public know what their money is being spent on, what property they have, what they don't have. We need to move in with technology. The community deserves a marshals office with the best technology. If you have a court date, a text alert reminding them".
Thomas: "One, accreditation starts immediately. two community relations board is notified, and we'll want to get together because with the community relations board, that makes me work with every aspect of law enforcement, that means well be working with the Lafayette city police, and the sheriffs office, I believe that its very important for everybody to come together. Also mentoring, I will definitely want to start a junior deputy marshal".
Each candidate has several years of experience in law enforcement listed on their campaign site:
Trahan: "My law enforcement journey began in 1989 as a Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Deputy. While employed with the sheriff’s department I was a member of the Metro Narcotics Specialized Team. In 1995, I joined the ranks of the Louisiana State Police where I served for 26 years"
Judice:"(He) began his law enforcement career at 19, when Sheriff Donald Breaux hired him as a dispatcher for the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office. He has worked in every facet of enforcement at the Sheriff’s Office throughout his 30 year tenure with that agency. The Town of Duson appointed Kip as Chief of Police in 2015"
Broussard: "(He has) 20 years working in the Lafayette City Marshal's Office while earning more than 175 advanced law enforcement accreditations and certifications over his career, more than 30 years of state, city and federal law enforcement experience, and experience with state, city and federal civil and criminal law. He was also the former elected chairman and member of the Lafayette Republican Parish Executive Committee."
Thomas: "In 1990, he began his career as officer with the Lafayette Police Department. During his time on the force, Reggie served as a Patrol Officer, Narcotics Agent, Training Director, Homicide Detective and Precinct Commander. In January 2016, Reggie was appointed Interim Chief of Police for the City of Lafayette."
