At crashes and crime scenes, Louisiana State Police are deploying a new tool: teddy bears

Louisiana State Police headquarters recently got an unusual delivery: 1,000 teddy bears.

Their destination? The arms of children troopers meet in painful places, like car crashes and crime scenes. 

“These bears, and stuffed animals in general, have been proven to deflect the situation for children,” said Trooper 1st Class Kate Stegall, public information officer for State Police. 

The nine troops throughout the state will each have 100 of the teddy bears for their officers to distribute. The remaining 100 will be given to children at State Police community events, Stegall said. 

The project began months ago, when a state trooper volunteered to head up fundraising $7,000 to purchase the teddy bears through the nonprofit organization, Barran’s Bears, Inc.

The officer, Trooper 1st Class Mike Smith, said he’s always kept small stuffed animals and toys in his police unit to give to children at the scenes he works.

“It’s been my experience, working multiple crashes involving young children, that these incidents can be extremely frightening for them,” said Smith.

The toys help bring peace of mind to the children, he said.

The nonprofit that provides the stuffed animals, Barran’s Bears, has a special link with Louisiana law enforcement.

The all-volunteer organization was founded in 2016 by another officer, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Turner Barran, to provide the bears to police officers and first responders nationwide.

The bears are handed out “anywhere that a child is involved in an adult trauma,” Barran said.

Like Smith and other officers, Barran said that early in his law enforcement work he “started carrying stuffed animals in my unit to give out, and I saw they had a calming effect on children.” 

A Metairie business, Fleet Tire, began helping Barran in his early efforts toward a nonprofit, when the shop’s owner put out a box where people could donate new and gently used stuffed animals for officers to give to youngsters.

Seven years ago, Barran founded the Barran’s Bears nonprofit, working with a Texas-based manufacturer who helped custom design the teddy bear and who provides the bears to the nonprofit at cost, while also waiving shipping fees.

Since it was formed, the nonprofit has worked with more than 65 law enforcement and first-responder departments across the country.

Both Barran and Smith said the effort to comfort children with the teddy bears hopefully has another message as well.

“They see we’re there to help them,” Barran said. 

Barran said he’s seen firsthand the difference that a gift of a little stuffed animal can make to a child.

He still remembers the day more than 30 years ago, when he was a little child and drove with his mom to take his dad to the airport in Seattle, where they lived.

But when he and his mom left, she couldn’t remember where she had parked. 

“I was upset, because I could tell my mom was upset,” said Barran. He was about four years old, and he remembers it was a cold and rainy day.

Then, a law enforcement officer at the airport stopped and talked to them and drove the two up and down the rows of parked cars, until Barran and his mom found theirs. 

“The officer gave me a bear,” he said. “I held onto it all these years later.”