BATON ROUGE - Right now, Baker and Zachary are both being led by history-making police chiefs — each department has its first-ever Black chief.

Chief Darryl Lawrence with Zachary is in his first term, while Chief Carl Dunn of Baker is in his third.

"People said it would never happen in Zachary, but we proved them wrong," Lawrence said. 

Both men have more than 40 years of combined experience with law enforcement. Chief Lawrence has been with Zachary since the beginning of his career. Chief Dunn, however, started with the Baton Rouge Police Department.

"In 1983 when I became employed with the Baton Rouge Police Department, I was hired under decent decree. So I was actually hired after the federal government came in and said, 'y'all need to hire more minority officers,'" Dunn said. 

Once they got the jobs, their next challenge was to overcome discrimination from some of their own brothers in blue. 

"You knew the ones that actually looked down on you... and the ones that actually kind of held you as an equal," Lawrence said. "My point was to prove to all of those guys who were looking down that a Black man can be a good police officer or even better than they could."

A lot has changed since those days. Now, they both continue to break barriers while inspiring the next generation. 
"I feel as though I have the best job on this earth," Dunn said. "Being a police officer is something that's a part of your vision or dream as a child... it's something that's easily attainable and it's taking care of people."