Jeff Davis Parish Sheriff’s officials arrested 32-year-old Christopher Villanueva after he posted a video of himself impersonating a deputy.

They also arrested 31-year-old Wilbert Lewis Jr. and 37-year-old  Luke Freeman, seen in the video, on charges of aiding and abetting the fraudulent portrayal of an officer.

The Facebook video shows Villanueva wearing the deputy uniform; he can be heard cursing, then even flips his middle finger at the camera.

JDPSO Chief Deputy Chris Ivey says it’s not about the shirt, which can always be replaced; he says the problem comes from the actions taken by the person wearing it.

“Especially in this day and age, we have so much negative publicity about police contact with people,” Ivey said. “You know, excessive force, shootings involving policemen and civilians. We try to police ourselves and try to be professional and try to do everything right. “

Ivey says it’s incidents like this that put a strain on the self-policing they’re working so hard on. 

“When you’ve got somebody like this that’s put one of our uniforms on and he’s representing us in a negative way then, yeah, we take issue with that and we want to try to stop it as quickly as we can so we can keep the confidence of the citizens.”

The incident is still under investigation, but Ivey says they believe Villanueva stole the shirt from a local business where uniforms are dry-cleaned.

He adds that anytime their deputies are out in their uniforms, they will be carrying a badge, they will identify themselves, and the majority of the time they will be in marked units. He says anytime you see anyone who may be impersonating a law enforcement officer, contact the sheriff’s office.