The first ever American Idol and current superstar Kelly Clarkson had a surprise up her sleeve when she brought her “A Minute and a Glass of Wine” tour to Sprint Center last Thursday night.  At one point during her show she invited two Kansas Highway Patrol troopers to join her on stage, and the crowd went wild.  The two troopers, Lamonte Jackson and Mike Pagel, work as Kansas Capitol police officers. Clarkson played a portion of the police car karaoke video the two created in May 2018 before they joined her with their own microphones.  Clarkson even chimed in as their backup singer as they performed, “Stand By Me.”  See the awesome moment in the video above. 

To watch video, go to:   https://www.facebook.com/kellyclarkson/videos/2007963972651813/

Please note:  The actual time on the video with the troopers and Kelly Clarkson begins at 14.23 minutes.

2/22/19

An Alabama State Trooper avoided serious injuries Sunday when his patrol car was struck by another vehicle on Interstate 59. Investigators said the trooper was parked off of the road on I-59 southbound near exit 89 in Tuscaloosa County. Troopers said a passenger vehicle driving southbound left the roadway and crashed into the back of the trooper's car and sideswiped a State Trooper SUV. A tow truck driver was also struck by the vehicle. Both the trooper and the tow truck driver were taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries. The person driving the passenger vehicle was not injured. State Troopers said they are still investigating the wreck to find out what caused the driver to leave the road.

2/21/19

A photo of a West Virginia State trooper saluting a funeral procession is inspiring people all over the country. Tonjia Ray-Tompkins posted the photo on Monday, writing that she moved back to Oceana, West Virginia, for the small-town feels that the trooper was displaying. "Small towns that pull over and sit as your loved one is carried out of town to their resting place," Tompkins wrote. "The people on the streets even stood still as we passed." The funeral procession was led by the state trooper, who at one point blocked all traffic and saluted each car until everyone reached the grave site, Ray-Tompkins wrote. "The people here are just different," Tompkins said. A spokeswoman for the West Virginia State Police identified the man in the photo as trooper Richard Paynter.

2/21/19

State troopers have probably heard every excuse from speeding drivers, but this claim was unusual. A man pulled over by an Iowa State Patrol trooper claimed he was driving more than 100 mph to “beat the bad weather,” KCCI reported. The trooper pulled the driver over Saturday near Fort Dodge after clocking him at 114 mph, the television station reported. The driver claimed he was trying to outrun a snowstorm that had been forecast for the state later Saturday, KCCI reported. The trooper did not buy that argument. The Iowa State Patrol posted the incident on its Facebook page and warned drivers to “slow down, put the phone down, and buckle up.”

2/20/19

Master Sergeant Daniel Hinton suffered a fatal heart attack while participating in a defensive tactics training exercise at the Fort Myers FHP Station. He was transported to the Gulf Coast Medical Center where he passed away a short time later. Sergeant Hinton had served with the Florida Highway Patrol for 32 years and was assigned to the Criminal Interdiction Unit. He is survived by his wife, children, and grandchildren.

2/20/19

On Friday, Feb. 15, 2019, the Commonwealth graduated its 129^thgeneration of Virginia State Troopers. The 80 new troopers were presented their diplomas during commencement exercises at at the State Police Training Academy located at 7700 Midlothian Turnpike in North Chesterfield County. Governor Ralph Northam and Deputy Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security Ryant Washington were in attendance of the graduation ceremony. The new troopers have received more than 1,300 hours of classroom and field instruction in more than 100 different subjects, including defensive tactics, crime scene investigation, ethics and leadership, survival Spanish, police professionalism, firearms, judicial procedures, officer survival, cultural diversity and crisis management. The members of the 129^th Basic Session began their 30 weeks of academic, physical and practical training at the Academy July 25, 2018.  The graduates of the 129^th Basic Session are from every corner of the Commonwealth, as well as New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The new troopers will report to their individual duty assignments across Virginia the week of February 18. For their final phase of training, each trooper will spend an additional six weeks paired up with a Field Training Officer learning his or her new patrol area.

2/19/18

Lawmakers have introduced a bill to rename a bridge in honor of a fallen southwest Virginia state trooper.  Virginia SB 1789 was introduced yesterday.  If passed, it would designate the bridge on Interstate 81 over Whitetop Road as Trooper Lucas B. Dowell Bridge.  That is the bridge at exit 35 in Chilhowie. Trooper Dowell was a Chilhowie native who was killed while helping serve a search warrant in Farmville, Virginia on February 4th.

2/19/19

Richard Fambro grew up as one of three sons of a single mother in a home a mere five blocks east of the State Highway Patrol Training Academy on 17th Avenue. But he does not recall seeing a state trooper as a kid. He admired Columbus police, walking into the department’s headquarters as a young man to apply before thinking better of potentially being called upon to police friends and acquaintances in his inner-city neighborhood. A few weeks later, someone suggested he become a trooper. Fast forward nearly three decades and Fambro soon will become the first African American to lead the State Highway Patrol since its founding in 1933. Fambro was introduced as the next superintendent of the patrol, carrying the rank of colonel, Thursday morning by Gov. Mike DeWine and Public Safety Director Thomas Stickrath. Fambro, 53, has served as an assistant superintendent and lieutenant colonel in charge of planning, finance, personnel, logistics and security services since early last April. He was criminal-patrol commander for eight years and former commander of the personnel office. Fambro joined the State Highway Patrol in 1989 and once served as its news media spokesman. He also is a former commander of the Lancaster patrol post, where he began his career as a cadet dispatcher. He will succeed Col. Paul Pride, a near-30-year-veteran who is retiring effective March 15 after leading the Patrol’s 1,600 uniformed personnel and 1,000 support personnel since mid-2013. Fambro called his elevation “hard to put in perspective. It’s a blessing to have this opportunity. It speaks to the opportunity in the patrol, an organization rich with talent, rich with leadership.” Hundreds of troopers and cadets packed the training academy Thursday to hear from the governor, Fambro and Pride. Fambro said he and Stickrath are committed to increasing diversity among the state troopers — 9.6 percent are women and 7.8 percent are black. “As always, the division wishes to be as diverse as we can. We need to look like the population we serve. Diversity is at the top of our list,” Fambro said.

2/12/19

Idaho State Police officials say troopers made the biggest marijuana bust in the agency’s known history after a semi-truck allegedly filled with nearly 7,000 pounds of marijuana plants was stopped between Boise and Mountain Home. ISP spokesman Tim Marsano said Tuesday the truck from Portland, Oregon was stopped on Jan. 24th -- as part of a routine, random commercial vehicle safety inspection. The driver's bill of lading -- a document that details the cargo in the shipment -- said the trailer was carrying 31 bags of hemp. Marsano says the trooper detected a strong odor of marijuana during the inspection. So he opened one of the bags and performed a field test. “The trooper observed a green, leafy substance which appeared to be marijuana,” said ISP spokesman Tim Marsano. “He used a Narcotic Identification Kit to test a sample, and it tested presumptive positive for THC. Additionally, the trooper called in an ISP drug-sniffing canine team; the dog demonstrated a positive alert on the cargo.” Currently, a sample of the cargo -- which officials said weighed 6,701 pounds -- is being tested at a laboratory for conclusive analysis. "This is the largest Idaho State Police trafficking seizure of this type in any present-day trooper's memory," said Colonel Kedrick Wills, ISP director. In 2014, troopers seized some 310 pounds of marijuana; in 2015, 458 pounds; in 2016, 507 pounds; in 2017, 1,375 pounds and, last year, 2,131 pounds, Marsano said.

2/1/19

A Michigan State Police trooper found all this inside a car during a traffic stop on Sunday, including 52 grams of meth.  The trooper made the stop near Houghton Lake in Roscommon Township.  State Police say they believe the drugs were heading for other places across northern Michigan.  It all happened just after 10 Sunday morning near Houghton Lake. A state police trooper pulled over a vehicle for a registration violation, but inside the car, the trooper found this,52 grams of meth and a stolen gun from Indiana. “ We really commend the trooper individual, in this case for going beyond that initial minor violation in the case of this traffic stop.  That is a large amount of a very, very serious and dangerous drug that this effort has taken out of northern Michigan and you can’t overstate how important that is,” said Lt. Travis House with the Michigan State Police.  Police believe that meth was heading to communities across northern Michigan and could be sold for $100 per gram with each gram containing about ten doses of meth.  “That amount of meth being kept out of northern Michigan communities is a very big deal, that could be a very large number of people who are affected directly by that seizure, and who knows who’s hands that drug would have fallen into had it been dispersed,” said House.

1/29/19

The Nevada Highway Patrol will be wearing new uniforms starting in 2019. NHP announced the team will be transitioning from a blue uniform to a gray uniform. This transition started back in 2017 and is now complete starting Jan. 1, according to the department. All troopers will be wearing the new gray uniforms as the blue attire will no longer be authorized. 

1/25/19

Florida Highway Patrol Dodge Charger & Federal Signal featured in YouTube - video- Police Cars 4!

Lieutenant Camacho from Troop E- Miami-Dade Headquarters will show you the exterior and interior design of the patrol car. This video displays the new low profile, triangular design Federal Signal light bar and the new light package including all blue LED lights.

AAST Foundation appreciates the support of Federal Signal - Platinum Sponsor and Dodge - Diamond Sponsor.

To watch video, go to:  POLICE CARS: Florida Highway Patrol (DODGE CHARGER RT HEMI)

1/24/19

At 6 a.m., January 21, 204 trainees reported to the Massachusetts State Police Academy in New Braintree for the 84th Recruit Training Troop. Over the next 23 weeks, the trainees will undergo a rigorous program to prepare them to become Massachusetts State Troopers. Trainees who complete the 84th Troop will graduate and take their oaths to serve on June 27. In between today and that day, trainees will undertake one of the most intensive regimens of any police academy, anywhere, including police procedure, criminal law, motor vehicle law, physical fitness training, ethical standards, medical first aid, defensive tactics, emergency vehicle operation, and firearm use. The trainees will live at the Academy from Monday through Friday of each week, under the direction of the Academy Commandant, Executive Officer, Drill Sergeant, and Drill Instructors. Training will take place in classrooms, where topics will be taught by subject experts; in the Academy’s gym and across its grounds, where physical training is held and defensive tactics are taught; in the firing range, and at the MSP’s Emergency Vehicle Operations Center in Devens. Additionally, trainees will be taught how to recognize impairment by alcohol or drugs and to perform field sobriety tests on suspected impaired drivers. They will also be instructed in how to defuse volatile confrontations with hostile persons, to administer Naloxone, a drug used to treat overdose victims, and to use electronic control weapons, a less-lethal use of force that can subdue a violent suspect before the point where lethal force is necessary. Another major component of the Academy will be scenario-based training, typically held in the latter portion of each Troop. Trainees will respond to dozens of scenarios, devised by Academy staff and featuring role players, that simulate real-life police incidents. Scenarios typically include simulations of felony motor vehicle stops, searches for hidden contraband, confrontations with combative or armed suspects, domestic incidents, active shooters, and numerous other situations that police officers respond to every day. Many scenarios are held at Circle Drive, a grouping of homes on the Academy grounds that are used to replicate residences, business establishments, or other locations. Those trainees who complete the Academy and graduate in late June will be sworn-in as Massachusetts State Troopers and be assigned to road patrol duties at an MSP Barracks. They will spend the first few months of their careers assigned to a veteran Trooper, designated as a Field Training Officer, to further refine their training and test their performance.

1/24/19

Gov. Tony Evers has picked for Wisconsin State Patrol superintendent a 30-year veteran of law enforcement who will be the first African-American to hold the post. Maj. Anthony Burrell, who was recognized for his response to the 2015 shooting death of a state trooper, will take the post effective Sunday. He succeeds former Superintendent J.D. Lind, who retired last fall. Evers, in a statement, cited Burrell’s “long and decorated history of public service.” “Under his leadership, the Wisconsin State Patrol will continue to prioritize the safety of Wisconsinites and help build stronger communities,” Evers said. In 2016, Burrell was promoted to major and deputy director of the State Patrol’s Bureau of Field Operations, which oversees about 385 law enforcement personnel and an annual budget of $45 million, according to the statement announcing his appointment. Prior to that, Burrell, who was raised in Milwaukee, was named captain of the 11-county Northeast Region-Fond du Lac Post in 2015. Burrell witnessed the 2015 shooting death of State Patrol Trooper Trevor Casper in Fond du Lac and helped oversee the on-scene response to the shooting. After the incident, Burrell was awarded the Medal of Valor, the State Patrol’s highest decoration for bravery. Burrell also is president of the National Black State Troopers Coalition.

1/23/19

On January 15, 2019 the New Mexico State Police seized 391 pounds of marijuana out of a car hauler carrying two SUV’s at the Gallup port of entry.  The very next day two men were arrested at the Gallup port of entry when State Police Officers found 381 pounds of marijuana and 183 pounds of drug paraphernalia in a commercial motor vehicle (CMV). While officers conducted a safety inspection on the CMV they observed fourteen large boxes and could smell a strong odor of marijuana coming from the trailer.  State Police officers found 299 bags of marijuana, cannabis vape oil and loaded dispensers. 

1/22/19