The Tennessee Highway Patrol is actively recruiting, and the agency wants people to know two things: There's more to it than patrolling highways, and it is aiming to be a more diverse law enforcement agency.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press sat down with Lt. Bill Miller, a recruiter with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, currently accepting applications for its next academy, to speak about the department and its functions.
(READ MORE: Tennessee Highway Patrol using semi trucks to hunt down texters on the interstate)
Q: Let's talk about the department -- what does it mean to work at the Tennessee Highway Patrol?
A: We are a state police law enforcement agency. We cover all 95 counties. With that being said, even though we are a state police agency, we are very much so a community-based law enforcement agency. So we offer something for pretty much anyone that's interested in a career in law enforcement, and we can pretty much get you back home to where you want to live.
We are in a very active recruitment stage with the Tennessee Highway Patrol. We are hiring just about as fast as we can get applicants to get their paperwork sent into us and get through our agility test and interviews and selection process. We are currently at the present moment conducting interviews for our November class, but as soon as we close this cycle out we're going to be opening up for the process for which our next class is going to be going in February.
It's really not just a job, it's a career. I've been a trooper for 25 years, and I love it. And it's a job where there's not very many days that go by where you don't feel a sense of accomplishment or a sense of being rewarded for a job well done, because you know, you've helped somebody.
Q: You did mention before that it's a community-based law enforcement agency, break that down for me. A lot of people think all they do is pull people over and give them tickets.
A: It's not just crashes and DUIs and running tickets. We're not just that type of agency. We are a frontline agency. If there are natural disasters in Tennessee, if there's a manmade disaster, if there's a large demonstration or protest group that may be taking place, we're the frontline force there to make sure that is a peaceful protest and that it remains peaceful. We encourage that, you know, we're a great country built on expressing our beliefs and our feelings, and that's part of the political process. We're there to support our local partners in areas where they might need it.
Q: Let's expand a little bit on the different areas of policing that the Tennessee Highway Patrol offers.
A: We work very closely with all of our local partners, our state partners, our federal partners. One example, Christmas Day a couple years ago, unfortunately, the great city of Nashville experienced that Christmas Day bombing. Well, our patrol immediately responded by sending troopers to help the Metro Nashville police department securing the scene. Our Criminal Investigations Division responded without hesitation and processed the debris of the vehicle, and you can imagine this vehicle was in just the smallest fragmented portions of pieces.
Our troopers knew where and how to find identification marks on a piece of metal. We have a Criminal Investigations Division that works undercover in numerous areas of law enforcement. I can't go into too much of that, for their safety. We are the only state law enforcement agency in Tennessee that offers air rescue capabilities with our aviation section. We operate helicopters across the state. Some of these helicopters are just brand spanking new state-of-the-art, top-of-the-line equipment.
We are very proactive in keeping our communities safe. We have a special operations or tactical unit that is probably within the top five rankings of one of the best in the country in their training in their equipment. They are certified by the U.S. Marshals and also by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Q: When it comes to recruiting, what are the demographics the department is missing, be it Asian, Latino, Black, Native American ... that you would like more of to come in and apply and why?
A: We stress this to the fullest: We are a full equal employment opportunity law enforcement agency, we do not discriminate against anyone who wishes to apply for our department. We welcome anyone who wishes to come apply.
Minorities obviously, we are very low on minorities within our department, and for some reason, law enforcement is primarily a male-dominated profession, and that's something we definitely need to improve on. We do need more female law enforcement officers. We do need more female troopers. We need more people, minorities of all races and across the board.
We do not discriminate in any shape, form or fashion, as long as a person has a clean criminal history, and they are a U.S. citizen, then they can apply to be a Tennessee State Trooper, so we're currently working hard to do that to get as many people in the door that we can.
We represent this great population. With the migration of just people in general coming east or coming south from northern states, moving from all areas. So we understand when we see that, the population growth that's exploding in Tennessee, we understand it's a demographic of people all across the board, and we need to represent that, and that's how you become better. That's how you address customer service better. The citizens in Tennessee, they are our customers.
If anyone is interested in learning more about the Tennessee Highway Patrol they can send an email to recruitment@tn.gov.
Contact La Shawn Pagán at lpagan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow her on Twitter @LaShawnPagan.