The Mississippi Department of Public Safety (DPS) is preparing to host its sixth consecutive patrol school in January.
According to Commissioner Sean Tindell, the application process to become a cadet has recently concluded with 300 applicants submitting forms. DPS is now in the process of screening the applicants and working to narrow the number to 40-60 cadets who will begin training in early 2024.
Since being tabbed as commissioner by Governor Tate Reeves in 2020, Tindell has made it his mission to continue the tradition of hosting patrol school to add new cadets to the department. He hopes to break the current record of most consecutive patrol school sessions held in the state.
“We’re going on six consecutive years of patrol schools and I think the record is eight,” Tindell said on The Gallo Show. “We’re going to break that. We’re going to keep doing those annual patrol schools.”
One of Tindell’s goals with continuing the yearly patrol school is to have more state troopers serving areas of the state that have a lesser presence of law enforcement officers. Tindell noted that there are portions of Mississippi that routinely have a minimum number of troopers covering multiple counties.
“Recently, I was up in the Starkville district and I was looking at our (dispatch) system. It was about nine in the morning. We had, I think, three or four troopers working nine counties,” Tindell continued. “That’s just not enough out there on the roads making our highways safe and making sure if there’s a wreck, we’ve got people to respond, or if there’s a broken down motorist, we’ve got people that can help.”
The commissioner hopes to get Mississippi’s state trooper count to over 600 for the first time since 2000 in the coming years.
Watch the full interview with Tindell below.
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