BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -
Baton Rouge has a new provisional police chief, as Lt. Carl Dabadie Jr. was
officially sworn in Tuesday morning.
Dabadie is a 26-year veteran of the Baton Rouge Police Department and the
son of an officer who was killed in the line of duty.
"I never imagined that I'd be standing here today," Chief Dabadie
said as he thought about his father.
"It fills my heart, I know he's here with me and I'm going to use him
as my guide."
Dabadie will hold the chief's position for 90 days until the mayor's office
can arrange a formal search for a permanent replacement.
"Excuse me; I'm a little bit nervous about all of this. You know, going
into a house with bad people in it is not nearly as scary as standing up here
talking to you," Dabadie told the audience which included members of his
family and friends and fellow police officers.
Dabadie pledged to continue not only the BRAVE initiatives, but all current
crime fighting programs.
"Our BRAVE team is working tirelessly to make those connections with
the community and bridge those gaps and get the community to talk to us and
that's not going to change. We need the community to trust in us so that we can
do what we need for them," Dabadie said.
District attorney Hillar Moore says the BRAVE program is special.
"It's designed that if anyone of us at the top levels are gone, the
program runs just as if we were there. We've already met with him before, he's
been on the BRAVE prior to this and he's committed to BRAVE just like everybody
else is," Moore added.
Dabadie added as a member of the training academy, he has touched almost
every officer out there and hopes he has earned their trust.
Meanwhile, ousted former Police Chief Dewayne White is gearing up to appeal
his termination.
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Carl Dabadie Jr. takes the oath of office.
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