‘I need to slow my butt down’ - La. State Police head apologizes; admits to being pulled over for speeding before

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - The head of Louisiana State Police (LSP) acknowledged he needed to “slow [his] butt down” when he was caught speeding along a dangerous stretch of a Louisiana interstate and admitted to being pulled over at least one other time for speeding.

In an interview Friday, July 8, Col. Lamar Davis said he was not ticketed during either stop. He was also unable to recall how fast he was going in either situation.

FULL INTERVIEW WITH COL. DAVIS IS BELOW:

“This is something that I frown upon and quite frankly I’m disappointed in myself. But, rest assured that I know better, and I will continue to do better and do my best. You have that commitment there,” said Davis.

In the most recent stop, a state trooper pulled Davis over on June 28 on the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge along Interstate 10 near Ramah.

Louisiana State Police Captain Nick Manale, head of LSP Public Affairs, said the responding trooper “utilized his discretion and did not issue a citation” to Davis.

Manale said the responding trooper did not make any notes about how fast Davis was driving in the 60-mile-per-hour zone when he was stopped just after 1 p.m. that day.

Davis said Friday that he was “simply wrong in that situation.”

WAFB-TV requested a copy of the responding trooper’s body camera footage through a public records request filed with Louisiana State Police earlier this week.

Late Thursday evening, July 7, Louisiana State Police released both the trooper’s limited body camera footage as well as a snippet of video captured from the trooper’s dash cam recorder.

However, the body camera footage that was released cuts off as soon as the trooper exits his vehicle and recognizes that the motorist he has just pulled over is his boss, Colonel Lamar Davis.

“Well, I’ll be,” the responding trooper from Troop A is heard saying just before the video stops. Manale said it appears the responding trooper stopped his body cam recording as soon as he recognized Davis.

The dash cam footage, which does not have audio, shows the trooper and Davis talking for a few seconds between their two vehicles before the two shake hands. Within 30 seconds of first exiting his vehicle, Davis steps back inside his vehicle and prepares to drive off.

Davis defended that trooper in the interview Friday saying that the trooper’s actions fell within LSP policy.

“I know everybody wants to see everything that we do. But, we’re not putting body cameras on doctors or lawyers or anybody else that is interacting with the public,” said Davis. “I ask that people trust that we are doing the right thing for the right reasons.”

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards recently signed legislation which strengthens penalties for speeding along the roughly 18.2-mile bridge. That new legislation takes effect on August 1.

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