Spoke to a close friend of mine who is a retired trooper on this matter. He told me the pull away from the Metro area and surrounding larger communities is more from low staffing levels in OHP currently have only about 740 troopers. He said that around 50% of the troopers on the road are going to be eligible for retirement in the next 3 years of which most plan to retire at that time. The state has difficulty funding academy's and he said that the turnpike authority has funded some of them to aid them since they are used on the turnpikes around Oklahoma. He said all departments, not just OHP but nationwide are having difficulty getting people to go into a career in law enforcement. He stated that its so hard to convince someone to do the job now because the media is constantly attacking them and a lot of the times there own department will not stand behind them thus most now have to cover and pay for private insurance to try to protect them in the event of getting sued no guarantee that will even be enough. Don't see it getting any better since the state is in no shape to hire and train enough Troopers let alone officers in the many departments in need around the State of Oklahoma. Hopefully things will improve only time will tell. ----Rick
