Kip Judice, candidate for Lafayette City Marshall, joined Discover Lafayette to discuss his desire to serve our community and bring a common-sense approach to restoring trust in the Marshall's office. The election will be held on November 3, 2020.

Kip Judice developed an interest in law enforcement when he joined the Explorer Scouts in the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's office during his Sophomore year in High School. His keen interest in operations led the staff to encourage him to apply for a job and he was hired at the age of 19 by Sheriff Don Breaux in 1985.

His first job was in the Dispatch Center of the Sheriff's office and over the years he served in various leadership capacities under Sheriff Don Breaux (1985 - 2000) and Sheriff Mike Neustrom (2000 - 2015). As Commander of the Civil Department under Sheriff Neustrom, Judice garnered experience in operations similar to the duties required of the City Marshall: issuing subpoenas, picking up people on outstanding warrants, handling evictions, and seizing property pursuant to court judgments. He also served as the department's spokesperson relaying information to the media.

Over the years, Kip Judice has been front and center working to resolve high-profile cases involving heinous criminals. One particularly disturbing case included the "South Side Serial Rapist" who had raped seven women at gunpoint over a thirteen-year period; unfortunately, the perpetrator ended up being a respected employee in the sheriff's office, Detective Randy Comeaux.

Judice was also involved in another violent criminal being brought to justice after brutally raping and killing seven women between 1992 and 2003. Serial killer Derrick Todd Lee had flown under the radar of law enforcement because he was Black and law enforcement believed that the murders could only have been committed by a white male and were only testing the DNA of white men. During the interview, Kip discussed the emerging use of DNA genomic testing in 2003 which allowed the investigators to determine there was a 98% probability that the same African American's DNA had been gathered from all of the victims. The case was quickly wrapped up as the crime labs started testing DNA of Blacks who had been arrested and Derrick Todd Lee was the match. Judice's detective work on the case led to him giving a presentation on investigative aspects in the serial killer case to the highly esteemed Academy of Forensic Sciences in 2006

Another high-profile and fascinating case Judice reflected on involved Knight Oil Tool family where one brother attempted to frame his sibling for a felony so as to cut him out of his anticipated multi-million inheritance. Again using a common-sense approach, Judice and his team solved the crime by examining the evidence which just didn't add up. Sadly, the case also involved two fellow law enforcement officers who accepted bribes to plant evidence on Bryan Knight.

Judice stayed with the Sheriff's office until May 2015 when he was hired to serve as Duson Police Chief. He inherited a police department rife with controversy after the previous four chiefs had either been indicted for crimes or were already serving prison time. The office was in disarray with only two employees who were making exorbitant amounts of money due to excessive overtime, there was no records management system, and the community had a mindset that if you knew someone in charge you could receive special favors.

Kip focused on improving the office from day one. By his seventh day in office, he had hired two additional police officers who were already certified and qualified to work in law enforcement. He was able to do this at no extra expense and actually saved the office money by getting rid of the overtime expense that had bogged down the budget.