Rita Hutchinson
July 31, 2008
Helen Ann Hebert Martin
August 4, 2008
Darrin Naquin has taken his dream of being a state trooper to a whole new level with his recent promotion to commanding officer of Louisiana State Police Troop C in Gray.
Naquin, 38, was promoted to the rank of captain, replacing Val Penouilh, who has since been promoted to major and now runs Region 1 of the Louisiana State Police. The veteran trooper is the 16th commanding officer in Troop C history.
So when did this love for law enforcement evolve for the Plattenville, La., native?
“Honestly, I cannot tell you where I got the idea from because no one in my family is in law enforcement,” he said. “I guess I started really thinking about it when I was in high school and the teachers were constantly asking us what type of career we wanted.”
The quest began for the Assumption High School graduate in 1987, when he became a campus cop at Nicholls State University. A year later, he joined the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Naquin patrolled the streets of Lafourche Parish honing his skills as a law enforcement officer. But, his ultimate goal was to attend the Louisiana State Police Training Academy, which is the first step to becoming a state trooper.
“Don’t get me wrong, working with the sheriff’s office was a great learning experience because we handle a lot of things. Our job description was broad,” he said. “Sometimes, we handled burglary and theft cases, and then at times it was disturbing the peace and domestic calls. But for me, I wanted to be a state trooper.”
On Jan. 20, 1990, after three years with the sheriff’s office, Naquin was heading to Baton Rouge to attend the Louisiana State Police training academy. He graduated on April 12 that same year, as a member of the 67th session, only to settle into his digs at Troop C for the next 18 years.
From the outset, Naquin never particularly cared to work outside of Troop C, which serves Assumption, Lafourche, Terre-bonne, St. John the Baptist and a small portion of St. James parishes.
“My tenure at Troop C shows how much I enjoyed working in this area,” he said. “I had other opportunities to go other places, but I decided to stay at Troop C because it’s one of the best places to work.”
Naquin quickly moved up through the ranks, starting out as a road patrolman and moving to the public information sector before being promoted to sergeant in 1998.
The former state police SWAT team member received an associate’s degree in Criminal Justice from Nicholls State University and a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University.
Over the course of six years, he supervised the troop’s criminal patrol unit, hit-and-run fatality section, crash-response team and assisted with the TrafficStat program, which was started at Troop C.
“This program was developed at Troop C as a traffic safety initiative that uses statistics to effectively reduce crashes on Louisiana highways,” Naquin explained. “The program was used to educate, enforce and engineer mock crashes to show citizens the consequences of hazardous driving.”
Today, the program is used at the local and national level.
In December 2004, Naquin was promoted to lieutenant. That same month, he was named Troop C’s executive officer, second in command to Penouilh.
The new commanding responsibilities allowed him to attend an 18-week FBI National Academy training for state and local law enforcement officers in Quantico, Va.
“Only one percent of all law enforcement has an opportunity to attend this academy,” he said. “It was an honor for me to be selected. It was an opportune time to learn more about law enforcement leadership and management as well as to meet police officers from across the world and learn from FBI agents in their state-of-the-art training facility.”
He has continued to hone his specialized training.
“For 18 years, I have watched Troop C grow into a well-respected branch of the State Police, and I am honored to continue building upon that legacy,” Naquin said.
“I am very fortunate that the leadership at Troop C was very effective. I am coming into a well-oiled machine.”
