Acadiana Crimestoppers debuts on KLFY+ with marshal Reggie Thomas

LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) - Acadiana Crimestoppers will premiere tonight on KLFY Plus at 9:30pm. The show will cover recent crimes and fugitives law enforcement are currently seeking to apprehend. The guest tonight will be Lafayette City Marshal Reggie Thomas. He will give two interviews with us. The first one will cover Lafayette's most wanted, where Thomas will cover fugitives from the law, which his office is currently trying to track down.

The second interview will be a sit-down discussion on the expanding duties of the City Marshal's office and how his office is taking a more aggressive approach in Mayor-President Monique Blanco Boulet's administration. This aggressive approach entails filling more gaps in law enforcement where there is a need. One of these is Park Police. The Park Police were done away with in the last administration, but now, the City Marshal's office has taken over the operation. "We make sure that we are seen and we make sure we protect," says City Marshal Reggie Thomas. He says this has allowed his deputies to better engage with the community. "During the summertime, we're at every camp," says Thomas. "Not only are we at the camps protecting the kids, but we're also mentoring also," adds Thomas.

The engagement with youth has also expanded into local schools as the Marshal's office has helped provide more school resource officers. "Everybody can only do so much, we only have so many, so when the Charter schools started, they really needed SROs in the schools," says Thomas. "Not only did we start doing SRO duties, but we also started doing a D.A.R.E program," explains Thomas.

All of this hard work hasn't gone unnoticed. The office recently became accredited, and it's very rare to have an accredited Marshal's office. "We did all the work, and we were accredited, we met all the standards that we need to meet, and these standards are very high standards," says Thomas. "We are the only Marshal's office in Louisiana that is accredited, there's only three Marshal's offices nationally that are accredited."

Thomas says they are not done moving forward. He has one message he wants to send to the citizens of Lafayette.

"We know our mission, we know our job, and we're going to continue to protect Lafayette."