The City of Lake Charles, Louisiana

Through their dedication, the men and women of the Lake Charles Police Department have made outstanding achievements in the area of community partnerships and fostering a greater sense of effectiveness while striving to reduce the incidence of crime and disorder in the City of Lake Charles.

The Lake Charles Police Department operates under the leadership of Chief Shawn Caldwell.

Born and raised in Lake Charles, Chief Shawn Caldwell is proud to call Lake Charles home. A product of the Calcasieu Parish School system, he attended Fairview Elementary School, FK White Middle School and graduated from LaGrange High School in 1989.

After graduating from high school, Caldwell attended McNeese State University before beginning his career with the Lake Charles Police Department (LCPD) as a patrol officer in 1993. It was not long after beginning his journey with LCPD that he met his future wife, Lorri.

In 1995, Caldwell moved from the Patrol Division to Community Policing and was assigned as a bicycle police officer. Another year passed before he moved to the Traffic Division and became a motorcycle officer. This year, 1996, would also be the year that he and Lorri married. They started a family together and today are the proud parents of three children, Jacob, Grant and Aubrey. Jacob, 21, is a student at McNeese State University. Grant, 18, is a senior at Barbe High School and Aubrey, 16, is a junior at Barbe High School.

In his early years with the department, Caldwell received basic police officer training, graduated from the local police academy and completed other basic requirements along with additional community policing training. His time in the Traffic Division, however, afforded him the opportunity to attend more specialized training and Caldwell became a Traffic Accident Reconstructionist. It is this training that Caldwell credits with preparing him to investigate fatal traffic crashes. Additionally, was awarded instructor certification in a partnership with the Louisiana Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST), the FBI and the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement. He also received training as a certified instructor defensive tactics instructor and many other certifications.

In 2003, Caldwell’s career with the department took a little different path. He was transferred to the Professional Standards Division as a Recruiting and Hiring Officer. In this new Division, he was also one of the department’s Internal Affairs (IA) investigators where he investigated allegations of misconduct against employees of the department. While this was not something he aspired to become, he remembers this time of his career as an enlightening time where he realized the importance of this division, as well as several aspects of police department administration, including discipline, civil service and many other areas.

After two years in Professional Standards, Caldwell was promoted to Sergeant in 2005 and became a patrol shift supervisor. This was another new aspect of law enforcement for him to learn as in this new role he was now responsible not only for supervising fellow officers, but also motivating them. He attended additional training courses and brought this new knowledge back to the department.

Caldwell continued to supervise that shift of men and women until 2010 when he once again answered the call to serve in Professional Standards Division as an IA Investigator.

In 2013, 20 years after his career with the department began, he would take the next big step with LCPD when we was promoted to Deputy Chief over the Support Bureau. He once again found himself with new opportunities grow his law enforcement experience, including budget and fleet management, narcotics task force supervision and other duties now under his command. Once again, he sought the training needed to carry out his new responsibilities and in 2015, the same year he graduated from the FBI National Academy, he moved from the Support Bureau to the Operations Bureau where he served until being appointed the new Chief of Police at the end of 2018. He officially assumed his role as Chief of Police on January 16, 2019.

Chief Shawn Caldwell’s now 30-year career with LCPD has provided him with many opportunities to train and become a better, more well-rounded police officer. Beyond his time on the front line, he says his experiences with LCPD have also made him a better person, husband and father.