Trending Topics

As Ala. troopers’ numbers fall, challenges grow

Between 2010 and 2015, the state of Alabama did not hire a single state trooper

Brian Lyman
Montgomery Advertiser

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — One night stands out for Trooper Chuck Daniel. He worked the midnight shift — 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. — and he spent the evening driving from one accident to another.

Starting his night in Blount County, he got a call to head to a wreck in Birmingham. While working that accident, dispatchers told him to respond to another one in Pell City.

While working that scene, he got a call for an RV fire along Interstate 22, at the Marion County line. Daniel was the only officer who could respond. And the fire was 100 miles away.

“When you’ve got an RV on fire at the side of the shoulder, that interstate is shut down,” he said in an interview last week. “And when a major highway is shut down, it creates all these other problems. And they don’t get fixed until I get there.”

Bearing The Burden
Working solo is a common experience for state troopers. Their ranks have thinned as retirements and hiring freezes have taken their toll. Between 2010 and 2015, the state of Alabama did not hire a single state trooper. A federal grant helped pay for a class that graduated earlier this year.

The cuts could get deeper. The Legislature approved a General Fund budget last spring that cut the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s funding from $55 million to $39 million.

That proposal, said law enforcement officials, could further reduce the resources of state troopers. It would not only hurt state law enforcement, but many rural counties that depend on ALEA to provide services that they cannot.

Spencer Collier, the Secretary of Law Enforcement, described the budget last week as “apocalyptic.”

The department would close all but three of the state’s driver’s license offices and lay off 2/3 of its department’s civilian personnel. The department would try to keep the number of troopers steady, even if that meant transferring personnel out of other law enforcement agencies such as the State Bureau of Investigation. Collier, a former state trooper and state representative from Mobile County, called the budget a “nuclear option.”

“It would have been unheard of in my time as a trooper and as a legislator to vote for a budget with a $16 million cut to state law enforcement,” Collier said. “Now it’s passed casually and left to the governor to kill it. If I seem frustrated, I am.”

Law enforcement has faced the same employee cuts as other state agencies. Before the consolidation of ALEA was completed at the start of this year, the Alabama Department of Public Safety, one of its predecessor agencies, had lost 248 employees between 2010 and 2014. That was 17.5 percent of its workforce, larger than the 12.7 percent loss in the total state employee workforce during that time.

Collier, who began working as a state trooper in Mobile County in 1995, said there were 32 troopers assigned there at the time. Now, he said, there are about 15.

“We’re losing through attrition and not being able to replace them,” he said.

A University of Alabama report released earlier this year estimated the state needs 1,016 state troopers. Before consolidation completed this year, there were just 289 state troopers on the roads. Transfers of personnel from other law enforcement agencies boosted those numbers to about 431 at the beginning of the year, but the state trooper ranks remain well below full staffing.

Long Hours And Fatigue
As a result, troopers can find themselves responsible for calls beyond their posts. Some may cover two counties on a shift; covering five all at once is not uncommon. Daniel once shared a midnight shift out of Birmingham with another officer, but they almost never saw each other.

“When he was off, I was on, and you were responsible for five counties,” he said. “Any given night, you were going to work two of those counties by yourself. Traveling so much by yourself through those counties, it’s an officer safety issue, to be traveling by yourself.”

Fatigue also becomes a factor. A state trooper can work a full shift, get home and sleep a handful of hours before another call comes in.

“If he is mentally fatigued from being overworked, then he is not as safe as he would be if he only had to work that one shift and got proper rest before the next shift,” Daniel said. “I’m not as safe, and my officers’ safety is jeopardized. You can only stay mentally sharp for so long before you only think about going home and going to bed.”

State troopers do not get overtime pay, but do receive comp time if they exceed the allotted time on their shifts. A trooper closing in on hours may have their next shift cut short. That can force shift juggling for different troopers.

“It’s a continual balancing act by the supervisors to keep coverage for our counties,” he said.

Impact On Rural Counties
The shortage also affects local law enforcement, particularly in rural areas. State troopers handle homicide investigations and provide patrols for roads in those districts. Fewer resources mean fewer means to respond.

“When you go to the Black Belt, we’re working a majority of the homicides, a majority of the rapes and all the traffic fatalities,” Collier said. “The areas that need us the most are going to be the areas that suffer the greatest, because they depend on us.”

Sheriffs’ departments face their own personnel shortages. Bobby Timmons, executive director of the Alabama Sheriffs’ Association, said troopers responding to wrecks allow deputies to focus on other duties. Working accidents, he said, is a big time commitment for sheriffs’ departments that might have as few as four deputies on hand.

“They get tied up in court on litigation, if they worked that wreck,” Timmons said.

The other issue is visibility. Both Collier and Daniel talk about long drives without seeing any state troopers on the roads. Daniel said the department is in a reactive mode now, and Collier said the lack of presence takes its toll.

“The philosophy I try to instill is the best way to solve crime is to prevent crime,” he said. “You prevent crime by having a heavy presence. With the manpower we have, we can’t prevent crime or prevent poor driving.”

Perry County has no state trooper assigned to its roads, though troopers from other counties do patrol. Billy Jones, the sheriff of the county, said Tuesday the result is more complaints about speeding, and response times to accidents that can take up to an hour.

“We don’t have the best roads in the state, and it’s dangerous on most of these roads in Perry County,” Jones said.

There’s also a human toll. Collier said there’s “no steadiness” in a trooper’s life.

When Daniel works a late shift, his wife, a teacher, is getting up for work just as he is trying to get some sleep. His time with his 9-year-old is also limited.

“You miss them doing their homework, helping them do their homework,” he said. “You miss so many things with your family. I chose to do this job because I love this job. My wife is probably one of the most understanding women about my job. Even with her great understanding, there are times when she says ‘You need to come home,’ and I say ‘Honey, I’ll be home when I can.’”

Even with the workload, Daniel said he has his dream job, one he’d looked for for 20 years. A former police officer in Atlanta, Daniel also worked as a youth pastor and a business owner before going into the state trooper’s ranks. It’s a job he plans to do for life. Even so, he said, officers need resources to enforce the laws.

“For the 61/2 years I’ve been a trooper, we have always worked more with less,” he said.

Copyright 2015 the Montgomery Advertiser

RECOMMENDED FOR YOU