Lafourche's saggy pants law seldom enforced

Lafourche's saggy-pants law has been enforced fewer than 50 times since its 2007 creation.

The law bans "indecent exposure" of a person's "below-waist undergarments."

Records show 45 people have been ticketed in the law's five-year existence.

"That's a low number. I could get 45 in one hour if I wanted," said Lafourche Parish Councilman Lindel Toups, who introduced the ordinance. "It's everywhere. You go out there with your grandkids and you see people with their pants hanging past their drawers, showing their butt."

Sheriff Craig Webre tells The Courier ( his deputies use discretion when enforcing the law and have also handed out a number of warnings.

"We do not have a baggy-pants task force that spends its time looking for that particular violation," Webre said.


Webre said deputies decide whether a violation or warning is issued.

"It is going to be a discretion-based thing," Webre said. "If the person is cooperative, doesn't have a history, no other criminal activity and remedies the problem, they will likely end up with a warning."


"The law is very broadly written. We try to enforce it in a straight-forward fashion in the spirit of what it is to address," Webre said.

The ordinance seeks to target a person who "intentionally wears and displays his or her below-waist underwear" or "displays the skin under which said below-waist underwear was intended to cover."





Information from: The Courier,