More than 2,700 men and women applied to become Georgia state troopers last year. At the end of training, only 30 were wearing the Smokey hat and driving that hot blue car.
It’s not really what I expected.
Not prepared for PT.
I feel like this is not what God has planned for me.
Those were the comments of some of the washouts in their letters of resignation, according to State Patrol records, from the last complete training session, which began in August. The session lasted 18 weeks, but a lot of the cadets didn’t. In fact, many washed out in the first week of training, with a few leaving during the first hours of the first day.
Cadet was not physical ready! (Or, apparently, adverb-ready).
“A lot check out because they are not physically fit to continue,” said Capt. Scott Woodell, the director of the Georgia State Patrol’s academy in Forsyth. “They didn’t take us serious. They don’t have the heart and they just quit.”
Twenty years ago, Woodell says, almost everyone who started trooper school finished. “Quitting was not an option,” he said. “You just didn’t think about it.”
But they do now, the 22-year veteran says.
In recent years, the state's primary traffic enforcement agency has been so short-staffed that there are not enough troopers to patrol the roads 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in two-thirds of the state. The staffing issue also has meant the Patrol is unable to respond to thousands of wrecks each year, state documents showed.
The number of prospects is dwindling either because the public’s attitude toward law enforcement has changed or the quality of those who want to go into the field is lacking.
“It’s a nationwide law enforcement problem,” State Patrol Col. Mark McDonough said of the problem of finding suitable candidates. “The pool of people that want to get into law enforcement, all aspects of law enforcement, is shrinking rapidly. … It’s a reflection of a different generation and a reflection of a snapshot of where we are.”
That's McDonough's way of saying that people just aren't as tough as they used to be. Or, as he put it during an interview in May with the AJC: these days, "everybody gets a pizza and a trophy for showing up… . That grit from previous generations is not there any more."
A cadet does need some grit to meet the minimum fitness requirements for trooper school. On the other hand, these are not exactly Olympian standards: run 1½ miles in 15 minutes, 34 seconds; do 21 push-ups in one minute; complete 31 sit-ups in one minute. A few trooper candidates are middle-aged, but most are in their 20s.
“It’s all functional fitness,” Capt. Woodell said. “We’re not asking them to lift weights … or run an obstacle course. We’re trying to … make sure what we are asking these people to do is what is going to be asked of them in a career in the State Patrol.”
Right away, cadets ‘start dropping like flies’
In a continuing assessment of the trooper shortage, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained records from the trooper school in Forsyth. During the past five years, the vast bulk of applicants didn’t make it through the GSP’s initial evaluation, either dropping out of their own accord or being cut by the GSP.
The AJC also took a closer look at the last complete session, which ended in March. (A new session is in progress now).
Of 2,738 people who applied last year, only 485 made it through that initial evaluation, the records show. In the next phase, half of that 485 were disqualified after failing the criminal background check. Another 25 percent couldn’t meet the fitness requirements. The rest were cut because they failed either the medical or psychological exam.
So when trooper school began, Aug. 9, 2015, only 42 of the original 2,738 applicants were there. They all received a nine-page letter warning them of what was to come: “strict discipline, intense physical training and long hours.”
On the first day, Woodell warns them again, telling them the minimum physical fitness requirements are as “weak as puppy pee. It’s going to get worse.”
He said cadets “start dropping like flies” beginning with the first day of training.
“They don’t like the idea of people yelling at them,” Woodell said. “The first four weeks, they’re captive 24-7. They don’t get to go home. They get to call home twice during those four weeks. … They can’t watch TV. They can’t read newspapers. They can’t do anything but train. It’s a culture shock.”
The graduating class on March 18, after finishing weeks of field training after the academy, had only 30 members.
‘You live in a high-speed world’
The current trooper school isn’t going as well as the last one.
Of the 1,331 initial applicants, only 50 made it all the way through the physical fitness testing, background checks, medical and psychiatric exams.
They began training on April 3. Halfway through the 18-week school, there are 24 cadets remaining — for a job with a $35,741 starting pay. (That wage, say Patrol commanders, is another reason for the trooper shortage.)
Other than the physical and emotional stresses that lead cadets to drop out, there’s one other issue that can take a heavy toll. Although the trooper must be fit, he spends far more time driving than running, and some cadets can’t find the skill or the confidence they’ll need behind the wheel.
Some wash out because they can’t negotiate a driving course lined with traffic cones.
One who dropped out of the last school wrote in his resignation memo: “Irritated with self during driving.”
Woodell said the issue is part skill and part attitude.
“A lot of the driving (problem) is being afraid of the car,” Woodell said. “They don’t want to mash the gas pedal. As a trooper, you live in a high-speed world. Before we put you behind the wheel of that car, we want to make sure you’re going to be able to perform.”
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