Our State Troopers do a thankless job and do it with so little it is amazing that they stick with it. Alabama is burdened by special interest who get the money from the state budget. The state also never cares about anything to do with citizens unless they are sued and made to step up to the plate. Mental Health and Highway Patrol are two highly neglected departments.
While travelling 300+ miles I saw one Trooper
I was reminded of this while taking a trip to another city this weekend. While travelling 300+ miles I saw one Trooper that had just written a citation on I-65 North. While on the way home we noticed an 18 wheeler truck swerving all over the road. He would drive off the right side doing 65-70mph and then over correct into the far left lane scaring the daylights out of whoever was in that lane. At times he appeared to be driving as if he was weaving through traffic cones on an obstacle course.
We called as we approached the large city of Birmingham, Al. The Troopers said they would try to get a unit to that area. We followed for 25 miles or about 35 minutes and no one came. We called a second time and after another 15 miles we decided to call ahead to the next town. They managed to get a unit out but someone on the CB Radio must have alerted him to the approaching unit and he pulled off the Interstate shortly after the unit got behind him.
Department at 42% of it’s recommended capacity.
Alabama as of 2015 there are only 413 Troopers to cover 67 Counties 24/7.It was concluded in August 2015 that Alabama needed 1,016 Troopers to barely provide minimum coverage. This means we currently operate an important department at only 42% of it’s recommended capacity.
This results in some counties not having a Trooper on duty for 16 hours of the day. It’s no wonder that fatalities and wrecks are increasing at an alarming rate. One death is too many from some sleepy truck driver or drunk driver. To think that the legislature of Alabama will not properly fund an important agency for our roadways is an outrage.
Real Traffic Units? They have some Motorcycles that could be used for inner city 
enforcement of the Interstates going through cities or maybe some state highways. Of course the main reason I think these were bought was to escort the Auburn Alabama Football Teams to and from games. Football is a big industry in Alabama. To put it in perspective, I am 64 years old and only saw the motorcycles once in my life and that was about 6 years ago in this picture where they happened to be running radar on a state highway known for fatalities down from our house. 1 time in 64 Years!
Can you imagine 1 Trooper having to cover 2-3 counties? He has to respond to accident calls as far away as 100+miles. It was concluded in August 2015 that Alabama needed 1,016 Troopers to barely provide minimum coverage.
I remember as a Police Officer in the 1990’s Troopers that would come to the police station and sit to await an accident call. They could not “patrol” since the state only budgeted (and then cut some funding) them for 125 miles a shift.
Pursuits in vehicles with over 260.000 miles on them
It is horrible to think, but a matter of life in Alabama, that politician grease the hands of special interests instead of funding agencies as they should. I wonder how they would like to pursue high-speed offenders in vehicles that have over 260,000 miles on them.
We need high visibility of Troopers on our major Interstates especially to reduce deaths from drinking and high-speed driving. Of course this is a pipe dream at best since this has been going on like this for decades. It is the reason I coined the phrase, “Alabama, The Best Politicians Money can Buy”.
Bless the Troopers for what they do with so little. If you see one take a moment and shake his hand and call your Representative or Senator and ask why there are not more Troopers to protect us.
Comments welcome,
