By Larry Copeland
USA TODAY
ATLANTA — Interstate 85 south of Atlanta, where traffic roars past places such as Newnan, Grantville, Hogansville and LaGrange on the way to the Alabama border, seems to seduce speeders, especially in the wee hours.
The highway is relatively straight, and state troopers don’t patrol it at night.
The Georgia State Patrol is about 200 troopers short of what it says it needs, so vast stretches of I-85 — and other highways in the state — simply go unpatrolled from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
It’s not just here, either. Smokey is missing on highways across the United States as several states deal with shortages of state troopers.
The manpower deficit is part of a national shortage of police at all levels of government, says Michael White, associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former deputy sheriff in Pennsylvania.
In some states, budgets crunches, increasing numbers of retirements and salaries that can’t compete with those of city or county police departments make matters worse.
Strategies vary
Several states have resorted to hard measures:
*In North Carolina, the state posted unmanned patrol cars along some highways over the Memorial Day weekend. Police visibility often deters speeders and reckless drivers, and the patrol hoped that seeing the cruisers would make motorists slow down.
*In Michigan, Gov. Jennifer Granholm limited the number of miles troopers could drive each day in an effort to save about $2 million. The restrictions cap some of Michigan’s 1,038 troopers’ mileage allowances as low as 40 miles per eight-hour shift but don’t apply to emergency calls or high-speed chases. “We will make emergency calls on a priority basis as we have always done,” state police spokeswoman Shanon Akans says.
*In Oklahoma, where state budget shortages led officials to cancel trooper academies for several years, the highway patrol advertises on billboards for state police recruits. “We have a hat just your size,” says one sign featuring an image of the trooper hat that is the bane of busted speeders everywhere. “There are some rural counties where there might be one trooper that has to cover two counties, or sometimes even three counties, and we’re talking huge areas,” Trooper Betsy Randolph says.
*In Nevada, the highway patrol is requesting funding for 58 additional troopers from the state Legislature. The positions would enable troopers to work special assignments in areas where speeding or drunken driving is common instead of running from one emergency call to the next, says Maj. Tony Almaraz, whose command includes the Reno Valley, Carson City and Lake Tahoe.
*In Louisiana, legislators are debating raising pay for its troopers and shortening the length of their training in an effort to lure more recruits and make troopers the highest-paid law officers in the state. The state is about 50 troopers short because of attrition, Lt. Lawrence McLeary says. “We have troop (posts) that may have only three people at night, and they’re responsible for six parishes,” he says. “Some may have nobody at night, or they may have three troopers, but the patrol area is twice the normal load.”
The staffing shortage is “not just limited to state troopers,” White says. “Most police departments, especially police departments in big cities, are in the same position.”
Standards on the rise
Among the causes, White says, is that state police agencies are moving toward a more educated force, requiring some college credit or a four-year degree for candidates.
“Policing has traditionally been an occupation of the working class,” he says. “It hasn’t been a job you needed a college degree to get in the past. Now many have added requirements for some amount of college. That ... has limited an already limited applicant pool. A lot of police departments have recognized this and have loosened requirements, so applicants can substitute military service or prior police service.”
The shortages are critical because they hamstring one of the nation’s most vital police resources, says Dennis Hallion, chairman of the National Troopers Coalition, which represents more than 40,000 troopers in 35 states.
“If, God forbid, there is another 9/11-like tragedy at 3 o’clock in the morning, who is going to respond to that crisis?” Hallion says. “Our troopers are on the interstates. They have the quickest access to any crisis location that would occur in this country.”
Another contributor to personnel shortages, Hallion says, is the Iraq war. “Seventy percent of our National Guard is deployed overseas,” he says. “Who’s going to take up defending the front lines of our borders? That’s our troopers. More troopers than ever are going to be asked to control our borders.”
Troopers traditionally have been one of the most important law enforcement components in rural areas: keeping speeders in check, responding to crashes and supplementing county sheriff’s offices.
In more than 90 of Georgia’s 159 counties, no state troopers patrol highways from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Troopers on call get awakened at home if they’re needed. The highway patrol is in discussions with the Legislature over authorizing more positions, says Gordy Wright, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Public Safety.
“One of the keys to successful law enforcement is high-visibility enforcement,” Wright says. “When you’re not at full strength, you may have two troopers (covering several counties) on the early shift. If both of them are working a wreck, just doing the math, you don’t have a trooper patrolling.”
White says it’s very difficult to gauge the impact of the shortages on crime. “Theoretically, there would seem to be some threshold, though,” he says. “Whether some agencies have hit that threshold yet, I don’t know.”
Copyright 2007 USA TODAY