Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Shaq stopped by the Lafayette Parish Courthouse late last week for a very important event: His swearing in as a deputy city marshal. According to The Advertiser, while Shaq has been a deputy city marshal for some time, every deputy had to be sworn in again under the city’s new marshal.
Clerk of Court Louis Perret called it “the coolest swearing in” he’s done this year.
“He was on TNT last night and drove all night all the way from Miami,” Perret said.
O’Neal has been involved in law enforcement in several states for years part-time and as a reserve officer.
“He loves the police. He loves to support the police,” Perret said.
Shaq reportedly stayed to sign a few autographs after the ceremony. And while this might seem like a big deal to many, Shaq has been sworn in as a policy deputy quite a few times. In 2005, for example, he was sworn in as a reserve officer in Miami in a private ceremony. “”He made it clear when he decided to come to Miami Beach that he didn’t want to just be a poster boy for photo ops, he wanted to get down and dirty and do the job,” a police department spokesman told the Associated Press at the time. “He’s here to conduct investigations and to make arrests.”