This question came up when my wife and I were driving down the interstate near where we live and we saw a state trooper just driving along in traffic. When I first saw him he was off to the side of the road just pulling back in to traffic after being stopped near an abandoned car. He drove along in traffic for about 5 or 6 miles and then we lost sight of him.
I was wondering if he was heading somewhere or if his job is just to drive up and down the freeway. That got me thinking, if a state troopers job is to drive up and down the freeway, do they have a certain stretch to patrol where they just look for people breaking the law, or are they based somewhere and just respond to calls?
In most states, they seem to assign a certain number of cars to patrol the interstate highways. That isn’t the only function of the state police, so there are other troopers assigned to other tasks.
Police in cars have a “beat” just like the ones on foot. When they’re not responding to calls or performing some other assigned task, their job is to drive around and look for problems that need to be dealt with.
Those problems may be traffic violations, or they may be things like helping people in need of assistance; moving obstructions from roadways; or clearing accident scenes. I stopped last summer to help a beleagered deputy clear a couple of dozen escaped horses from the road and get them into a nearby corral. A highway patrolman pulled my wife’s car out of a ditch on a snowy hill when he happened to be driving by.
A call from the dispatcher takes precedence over patrolling, but they’re definitely “working” when they’re out driving around.
Yep. If a state trooper is driving in a city, out of his jurisdiction, and sees some whack job pull a hit and run, he can run him down and hold him until the local authorites can arrive and take over.
I suppose, although I’ve never heard one refer to himself that way. Local police, sheriffs, deputies, highway patrolmen, and so forth are all law enforcement officers. Around here, if you call 911 and ask for the police, you’ll get you that town’s law enforcement department. Asking for the sheriff’s office will get you the county’s law enforcement department. Asking for the highway patrol will get you the state’s law enforcement department.