Chaplain Alan Farouhar
Officer, Chaplain, and Ministerial Liaison · DeRidder, Louisiana
Alan Farouhar serves in public safety in DeRidder, Louisiana (Beauregard Parish) from both sides of the badge. As an active officer, he patrols the streets alongside his colleagues, while also serving as a department chaplain—offering confidential, judgment-free support to officers navigating the emotional burdens of the job.
Unseen Compassion and Medical Interventions
In his interview recorded for the Police Chaplain Project, Chaplain Farouhar addresses the stark contrast between public perception and the quiet, everyday compassion officers demonstrate toward individuals in their custody. Drawing directly from his frontline experiences, Farouhar highlights the unseen efforts officers make to care for citizens in distress:
“The average public, that’s all they see. What they don’t see is the same guy that when they bring them into the department... and they realize that this individual has taken an excess amount of drugs, they could very easily go ahead and book this guy into the jail... Oh, no, they’re not that way. They’re very compassionate people. They take the same individual, they bring them to the ER, they have their stomach pumped, and they’re there for them... Some of my officers actually sit down and they say, ‘Okay, we want to help you. We want to get you in some type of drug rehab. We want to get you in some kind of counseling.’”
The Chaplain as the Critical Liaison Bridge
While patrol officers routinely go beyond basic enforcement to encourage rehab and counseling, Farouhar identifies the critical operational gap: street-level officers lack the direct channels to municipal leadership, ranking command staff, or local social service networks to complete those handoffs alone.
To solve this, Farouhar stepped forward to formalize the department’s ministerial liaison framework:
Establishing the Ministerial Liaison: Functioning as a liaison between patrol officers, agency leadership, city council, and local ministerial resources to turn an officer’s street-level compassion into long-term community support.
Developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOP): Writing formal SOPs for the chaplaincy unit that establish clear points of contact across regional social services, emergency rooms, and ministerial networks.
Dual Community & Internal Care: Structuring the department’s chaplaincy role to support internal officer well-being while serving as an accessible, compassionate bridge for citizens in crisis.
Preserving Wisdom in the Archive
Through his Police Chaplain Project conversations—including Badge by Day, Bible by Night, Beyond the Handcuffs, and When Officers Choose Help Over Headlines—Reverend Alan Farouhar provides public safety agencies with a grounded model: demonstrating how chaplains serve as the vital link that turns an officer’s compassionate response into an individual’s path toward recovery.