The Mississippi Highway Patrol (MHP) graduated a historic class of new troopers on Friday.
What makes Cadet Class 66 one of a kind is that it is the first-ever MHP class completely made up of individuals with prior law enforcement experience.
“We’ll be adding 29 new state troopers to the ranks at the Mississippi Highway Patrol and we’re happy to have them on board,” Mississippi Department of Public Safety (DPS) Commissioner Sean Tindell said.
Congrats @MSHwyPatrol Cadet Class 66!
Today, 29 new Troopers took the oath to continue to keep MS safe! This class is the first of its kind, each cadet had prior law enforcement experience.
Your hard work, dedication, & determination has paid off! Mississippi is proud of you. pic.twitter.com/0anJrmAiwn
— MS DPS (@MissDPS) August 5, 2022
With every new trooper already being a certified law enforcement officer, DPS and MHP officials were able to shorten the length of this year’s Trooper School.
“What we were able to do since they already had basic certifications is we had a shorter school than normal. It was 12 weeks instead of the normal 20 weeks,” Tindell explained. “We were able to get them through and take that prior experience and save some costs for the taxpayers of the state.”
The 29 new troopers will now go through the Field Training program before being released to patrol the state on their own.
