New Mississippi Highway Patrol troopers hit the highways

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The newest class of Mississippi Highway Patrol Troopers has officially hit the highways.

Four of the forty-four troopers in Cadet Class 63 are joining Troop G in Starkville.

This is their first week of field training, but May 1 was their first day on the job.

Cadet Class 63 started out with about 85 men and women, but only 44 graduated to become Mississippi Highway Patrolmen.

The 22-week cadet school started back in December and just recently wrapped up.

However, there are still 12 more weeks of training left before the new troopers are ready to hit the roads by themselves.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to be,” said Mississippi Highway Patrol Trooper Easton Doles.

That something is a state trooper for the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

“I have family in law enforcement and it’s just something I have always wanted to do growing up,” says Mississippi Highway Patrol Trooper Jeremy Latham.

New Mississippi Highway Patrol Troopers Easton Doles and Jeremy Latham both had that dream growing up and today, it’s finally a reality.

Doles is the youngest trooper of Cadet Class 63 and this is his first job in law enforcement.

Before Latham became a state trooper, like his uncle who is also a part of Troop G, he was a police officer in Ackerman.

“Instead of just having one little town that you are looking out after, you have the whole state and your whole area to be looking over, instead of one little city,” said Latham.

However, getting here wasn’t easy.

Both troopers had to make it through the intense 22-week cadet school and the Mississippi Highway Patrol is known for having one of the toughest programs in the country.

On Wednesday, the new troopers joined the rest of Troop G for their twice a year qualification test.

“Area-wise, we’ve been so shorthanded, before they came out of patrol school so that just puts more enforcement on the highways and again, it just goes back to serving the public and trying to keep everyone safe on the highway,” says Mississippi Highway Patrol Troop G Public Affairs Sgt. Derrick Beckom.

The rookie troopers still have 12 -weeks in the field, training with veteran officers, before they’re ready to go it alone.

“It feels real good. I’m ready to get started working on the road by ourselves. Right now, we are riding with the other troopers. They are training us on how to control the traffic stop and follow all of the right safety procedures and everything.”

“I suggest that you slow it down, but again, not only them, as a whole we always continue to work hard, but those new troopers, they have endured a lot, so they want to get out and like I said, show what they’ve learned and everything.”

MHP is already recruiting for its next class.

The deadline for applications is May 31.