Moving Forward Archive

The St. Landry Parish Crime Stoppers program was designed to catch crooks, but, thanks to the newfound fame and longtime generous spirit of Sheriff’s Department Capt. Clay Higgins, it may also help change the lives of people who are down on their luck.

Crime Stoppers is a national program that offers rewards to people who provide anonymous information that can help police solve crimes. Higgins, the spokesman for the St. Landry Parish program, has gained a national audience for his television segments that call attention to a particular crime.

Those video clips now reach millions of viewers through YouTube and get thousands of Facebook shares and comments from around the world. Higgins first leapt into the national eye after his video about a robbery in LeBeau was posted in July. That one segment has been now been seen by more than five million people.

The Washington Post called him the “most irresistibly intimidating man in America,” and said his videos are “terrifying for criminals.” The newspaper called him the “Cajun John Wayne”—a nickname he says really doesn’t fit.

“I like Cajuns, and I love John Wayne, but I’m neither one,” he said recently. “I’m an Irish boy from New Orleans.”

And, no-nonsense videos and tough demeanor aside, he thinks his new fame can do more good in St. Landry Parish than simply solving crimes. He  launched a web store, captainhigginsgear.com, on Black Friday to sell Higgins-branded merchandise, dedicating “a large part” of the profits toward building a 24-hour homeless shelter in the parish.

“As the Capt. Higgins phenomena unfolded, I started to see a way that we could do good works with money earned from a commercial endeavor like that,” he said in a recent interview.”

In video clip on the website, he explains, “We have no proper shelter for the homeless in St. Landry Parish.”  He says proceeds from Higgins merchandise will be used to build “a home 

where a cop can call at two in the morning or on a holiday weekend requesting shelter [for someone who needs it] and have a compassionate human being say, ‘Bring them here.’”

He says that one of the things that attracted him to law enforcement is that it allows him to help people who have made mistakes turn their lives around. Sometimes that involves putting them in jail, but for some people who are “far down on their luck, it means providing “a simple shelter where they can feel safe, have a meal, clean themselves up, get some rest.”

His on-line merchandise effort  is “a commercial operation” with overhead costs that must be taken care of, but, once those are met, he says, profits will be used to establish and maintain a safe haven for the homeless and for other charitable causes.

Higgins has been with the sheriff’s department since 2011, but wasn’t sure he was the right person for the job when Sheriff Bobby Guidroz tapped him to be public information officer. He’d worked mostly as a night-shift patrolman and like his work.

He said he’s been taken aback by the reception he and his Crime Stopper videos have received, but also said, “As the Captain Higgins phenomena unfolded, I started to see a way that we could do good works with money earned from a commercial endeavor like this.”

Each item offered is emblazoned with a silhouetted illustration of Higgins’ face and trademark hat.

Andrew Ahrens, a Lafayette financial adviser and the investor behind captainhigginsgear.com, said he and Higgins had a common interest in helping those in need. They have not committed to donating any certain percentage of the profits toward a future home, but they have received offers from people willing to donate property for it.

“I’m just so blown away by what has happened in the last year in my life. I want to do good things,” Higgins said in a recent newspaper interview. “I can’t be any more clear than that.”