THP is covering more with fewer troopers, faces cuts

The prospect of a 9 percent state budget cut next year not only would likely mean fewer state troopers on Tennessee highways— it could mean 13 small counties won’t have any.
Those 13 counties— Scott, Bledsoe, Meigs, Sequatchie, Hancock, Johnson, Cannon, Clay, Pickett, Trousdale, Moore, Lake, Houston— would have to rely on neighboring counties for crash calls and assistance.
Tennessee has 553 road troopers this year, compared to 590 in 1977 when there were almost 2 million fewer people living in the state.
That means there were 13 road troopers per 100,000 people in 1977 and just 9 road troopers per 100,000 people this year. They have more miles to drive, more vehicles to check and more problems to face with less help.
Gov. Phil Bredesen has asked state agencies for plans to deal with a possible 9 percent budget cut in the coming fiscal year. Cuts are based on a formula that counts calls for service, population and other factors to determine which counties get troopers assigned.
The highway patrol commander, Col. Mike Walker, told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that troopers now also handle commercial vehicle inspections and face more dangers than were even imagined when he started working in Marion County more than 30 years ago.
Walker said he worked for five years in Marion County, often on the midnight shift, where he might drive two miles without seeing a car. “I didn’t worry about getting shot,’’ he said. ``(Current troopers) have to be concerned about a whole lot more things.’’
“If you go to a rural county a lot of times the trooper you’ve got working there is the only officer to back up a sheriff,’’ Walker said.