Top state trooper busted doing 90+ on the Basin Bridge

State Police Col. Lamar Davis got pulled over for doing at least 90 mph on the Basin Bridge last week, as lawmakers were ordering the Department of Transportation and Development to crackdown on civilians for similar dangerous driving along the 18-mile I-10 bridge linking Baton Rouge and Lafayette.

He was allowed to leave with a warning and no ticket.

“Well I’ll be,” the trooper who pulled over his boss is heard on body camera saying before the video released to the WBRZ Investigative Unit late Thursday abruptly cuts off. State Police only released the clip up until the moment the video stopped.

It appears the trooper's body camera was turned off.

Dash camera video from the trooper on traffic duty showed the vehicle Davis was driving activated his own blue lights as he was being pulled over.

There is no audio on the dash camera video provided to WBRZ, although the video shows the trooper and Davis speaking on the side of the interstate.

The traffic stop happened on I-10 W just as the Basin Bridge begins west of Ramah in Iberville Parish around 11 o’clock in the morning on June 28.

Sources told WBRZ the traffic stop happened soon after Davis gave his department an urgent assignment: To pull over speeding drivers on the Atchafalaya Basin amid lawmakers’ scrutiny over fast driving.

Governor John Bel Edwards recently signed a new law adding some of the toughest speed tracking rules to a highway in Louisiana ever to combat speeding. Traffic cameras could be used to track drivers’ speeds and issue tickets.

Sources within the department told WBRZ’s Chris Nakamoto, they’ve been taught to take a driver’s license when they drive as fast as Davis was – 30 mph over the speed limit.

After only a few seconds, Davis and the trooper shake hands and depart.

The video was provided to WBRZ late Thursday, July 7, just before the 10 o’clock news after the Investigative Unit submitted a public records request earlier.

State Police said in a statement late Thursday: "Colonel Davis was stopped for a traffic violation on June 28th, 2022 while traveling west on Interstate 10 in the Troop A area. The Trooper utilized his discretion and did not issue a citation."

Davis admitted to WBRZ on Friday that he was in the wrong.

“I was wrong. I admit that. I take full responsibility." Colonel Davis told Chief Investigator Chris Nakamoto. "I try to do too much in a day, I need to practice what I preach and don’t want to put anyone in a position to stop me or any other trooper. I was wrong. There’s no excuse. I don’t believe in excuses.”

The superintendent added that the trooper who stopped him will not be disciplined for turning off his body camera and that the situation will not affect any other citations written on the Basin Bridge that day.