Lt. Higgins’ fame spreading as a straight-talking crime crusher

Jimmy Fallon has suggested he run for president. The Washington Post likened him to John Wayne. He’s hired an agent, a manager, a CPA and an entertainment attorney since taking over as the face of KATC’s Crime Stoppers segment last fall. And he likes the burgers at Stelly’s in Lebeau.
Lt. Clay Higgins, the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office public information officer, has a straightforward way of speaking to criminals, encouraging them to do the right thing and turn themselves in, which has garnered him legions of local and national fans, but he just wants to continue serving and protecting the people of the parish.
“When I took this job, I was concerned about the meaning,” Higgins said as he traveled to film a Crime Stoppers segment on the north side of Opelousas.
“I wasn’t looking for glamour or to participate in a TV spot or get a promotion in life. I wondered what would happen to the meaning I had of having a positive impact in people’s lives and the positive impacts they had in my life.”
“I’m the farthest thing you would think for somebody to be the next PIO, but I’m the guy he (Sheriff Bobby Guidroz) wanted for the job. I didn’t want to let the sheriff down. I’m doing my best, and I follow my heart and speak my mind. I speak the truth as I see it, and in doing so, it (Crime Stoppers) has became very, very popular.”
Higgins became a police officer at the Opelousas Police Department in 2004 and transferred to the sheriff’s department four years ago. The law officer worked the night shift on patrol for 11 years and also worked as a SWAT team member.
As a patrol officer, Higgins said he found the fulfillment he was looking for in life.
“When you call the police at 2 a..m., you are already in a bind,” he said. “It’s been a bad day. A situation can be very ugly at that time of the night, and if a police officer can respond with compassion and respect, with sort of Christian outlook for what happened in that incident, that is what I strive to do.”
“I know what it is to be fallen man, which is why I became a cop. I put myself above no man, including the criminals. I’ve arrested a thousands of criminals. It was clear to me as a patrol cop that I had meaning, that I wanted to do this every day.”
In October of last year, Guidroz asked Higgins to take over the post of PIO for the department, and Higgins worried about how that might change the way he felt about his job.
“I had meaning as a patrol officer, and I was concerned about what would happen to that,” Higgins said. “I was patrol. I ‘d always been patrol. I had no idea how to do this job. I didn’t have any experience doing something like this.”
When it came to the Crime Stoppers segments, Higgins first went the script provided to him, but it didn’t take long for him to give up on the prewritten text.
“It was not me,” Higgins said. “It felt plastic and untrue. It didn’t reflect the kinds of feelings I would have about a crime or a victim or a suspect or a fugitive.”
“After a handful of films like that, I decided to throw the script away. I didn’t ask for anyone’s permission or blessing. I didn’t know what was gonna (going to) happen. I told my wife, and she knew I was troubled about my meaning in my life.
“I told her the script was just not me,” he continued. “I told her I wanted to speak my mind, and she said I was liable to get fired if I did that. I said, ‘If that’s what happens so be it, but I’m not going to be a talking puppet.’”
Just as he had done with investigations when he worked patrol, Higgins researched the crimes he was commenting on, considered the meaning behind the crime, the spirit behind the crime, what impact it had on the victim and the community, what message the crime sent to society and what he had to say about those things.
“I did it with no script, and I didn’t know what would happen,” he said. “It began this whole popularity thing.”
“It started out with some people saying, ‘You can’t talk like that. You can’t say stuff like that.’ For every person saying that you can’t do that, there were a thousand people saying it’s good that someone is doing that. It just got bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger over the months to what it is now.
“I am blown away and humbled by the whole thing. God has made his path (for me) clear.”
Even though he is no longer a patrol officer, Higgins sees his current post as a way to spread the message of compassion and offer redemption to those not on the straight and narrow path in life.
“Jail is a place a man can turn his life around,” Higgins said. “I’ve seen it happen a thousand times. That was the message I was concerned about losing and apparently a lot of people wanted to hear that message.”
In spreading his message, Higgins has attracted attention from around the globe, and as of press time, a Facebook fan page dedicated to the PIO had more than 7,700 likes.
“I never even looked at Facebook until I started this job,” he said. “Someone started a page in my name, and I asked them to change it to ‘Fans of Lt. Higgins.’ Whoever runs it is very kind. They changed it as soon as I asked. I thank them for their support, and I am humbled.”
In addition to never scrolling through a Facebook news feed, Higgins had also never seen a Crime Stoppers segment until he became the face of the clips. Since last October, he has also been contacted by nine different television studios in regard to possible television shows, and he has hired staff to help field such phone calls.
“People I never thought I’d have to be involved with in my life,” Higgins said. “I was answering phone calls, but I have job to do. I have no interest in leaving the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office to be a Hollywood star.
“If they want to come here and film as long as it doesn’t interfere with the operation of sheriff’s office or change who I am, we are considering it.”
Higgins arrived at a Dollar General store in Opelousas on a recent morning to film a Crime Stoppers segment, and customer walking to her vehicle stopped the lieutenant and asked to take a photo with him. Higgins then checked with the store’s manager before preceding with filming the segment.
At 11 p.m. on June 21, a few young men broke into the store and stole several packs of cigarettes from a case inside the store.
“We are going to show the surveillance video in jail for laughs,” Higgins said to the camera as a camera man from KATC filmed him in front of the store. “You are young, skinny and not very smart. You used one of your eight or 10 combined brain cells to plan this heist. You are a poor example of the intellect of St. Landry Parish criminals. You are an embarrassment to every criminal with a brain. You will be locked up in the no smoking section of the jail.”

Who is Higgins?
Higgins was born in New Orleans, and when he was 7 years old, his family moved to St. Tammany Parish.
“My people are from New Orleans,” Higgins said. “We have 200 years of heritage in New Orleans.”
Once his parents moved to the country north of Lake Pontchartrain, Higgins’ family raised and trained horses. His father took up welding as a career after being a pilot in the Navy during WW II, and his mother was a department store worker and a ballerina-type dancer.
Higgins went on to graduate from Covington High and started at LSU in 1979, majoring in political science and minoring in history and English. From there, he started his law enforcement career as a military police officer in the U.S. Army, and he later entered the business world as a car dealership worker.
“I was in business for many, many years,” Higgins said. “In business, I was very, very successful, and I left that world and the pursuit of money. I was a failed man. I had the trappings of success — a nice house, cars and things and money — but I wasn’t the husband I should be and the father I could be.”
“I wasn’t the good Christian I was supposed to be. I wasn’t living a fulfilled life. I left a career as a car dealership manger where I was making $140,000 (a year) and then I went to work for Larry Caillier at the Opelousas Police Department making $8 an hour. I took that vow of poverty in 2004 and became a better man.”