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### **What Makes a Good Alaska State Trooper?**

September 2020 | Volume 13 | Issue 9

As a recruiter for the Alaska State Troopers, I met some  interesting folks. Some were young, some were merely young at heart. Some liked  to talk, while others were pretty quiet. They came to us from different  backgrounds, with different personalities, and often had different dreams and  aspirations. By and large, however, the applicants I came in contact with were  a group of ambitious, energetic folks with a heart to serve the public and a  desire for something more than just a job. They knew that policing the Last  Frontier takes a different kind of cop. It takes an Alaska State Trooper.

If you ask the general public what characteristics  contribute to a good Alaska State Trooper, you may hear a variety of things,  not all of which are accurate. Some might say that an ideal applicant knows  martial arts or has skill with firearms. You might hear that they should have a  criminal justice degree, or perhaps military experience. You might be surprised  to learn, however, that while many of these things demonstrate how much an  applicant has prepared for a career with our agency, they don’t necessarily  show who will make a great trooper. Yes, we love to hire military veterans, but  we also hire schoolteachers. We hire construction workers. We hire salesmen,  business professionals, tradesmen, and so many others.

Our nation is at a crossroads right now. Across this  country, many are reexamining the relationship between police and the people we  serve. The public has high standards for who we hire, how we train them, and  how we keep them healthy—both physically and mentally. We have those high  standards as well. We’re not looking for people who are perfect, because they  don’t exist. We’re not looking for people who have all the answers, because  they don’t exist, either. So what are we looking for?

Our needs are simple: We want honest, hardworking people  with a heart for public service and good communication skills. Most of what an  Alaska State Trooper does is communicate. We talk to people, conduct an  investigation, then document those efforts in a police report. We can teach new  troopers defensive tactics, firearms skills, and physical fitness at the Department  of Public Safety Training Academy in Sitka, Alaska. What we cannot teach them  is how to tell the truth. How to do the right thing when nobody is looking. How  to communicate sincerely with witnesses or victims who may be suffering through  the worst day of their lives. How to listen. Or how to care. We cannot teach  patience, or kindness, or how to work really hard when they are uncomfortable,  tired, or far from home. They either have these abilities or they do not

 So what does it take to be an Alaska State Trooper? It  takes a rare individual, who may look very different from the folks you see on  police television shows or movies. It takes someone who may not know how to do  this job but has what it takes to *learn* this job. That person might be  someone you know.

Or that person might be you.

          Captain David Willson        Alaska State Troopers 

**Find out  more****.**

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