Beginning the Journey

Beginning the Journey

Last Sunday, December 1, 2019, began a new journey for 55 cadets with the Mississippi Highway Patrol. These aspiring Troopers entered the infamous patrol school, class 64, in attempts to accomplish what very few have been selected to attend and even fewer have finished. What adversities will these cadets face? Will they be able to control the desire to quit and take the easy way out or will they stay strong and continue to march on? If it were that easy to determine who will stay and who will leave, the selection process would be much simpler.

One week has passed by, 34 males and 1 female remains thus far. These cadets have another 21 weeks of rigorous training to endure. They will study constitutional law, rules of the road, accident investigation, and become proficient with firearms and defensive tactics techniques. Each will be required to train with the highway patrol’s Special Operations Group (SOG) and come into contact with a CS gas by going through a gas chamber and preforming anti-riot techniques. Cadets will also be sprayed with OC Spray and tased with the X26P Taser. This allows the cadet to understand how it can affect an individual, if by chance they ever have to use it.

Each week of training will progressively get harder with physical endurance, the cadets begin patrol school with sets of 10 and will move up 5 each week. Every 4 weeks a physical fitness test is conducted, consisting of 1.5 mile run, push-ups, sit- ups, and an agility run. This is monitored to see the cadet’s progress, and a requirement to pass based on minimum standards.

During patrol school, cadets begin to build bonds with each other. They learn about their classmate’s family and friends, their likes and dislikes, even becoming family by the time they graduate. No phones or electronic devices are used by cadets during patrol school, they depend on their classmates to survive training.

The Mississippi Highway Patrol was created in 1938, with its first patrol school being 29 days long. Today state law requires a minimum of 16 weeks, however, many patrol schools have continued with more weeks of training. This is due to the concerns for more education for law enforcement and because of this the highway patrol will continue its legacy in training qualified, professional, surviving Troopers.

Therefore, if and when these cadets graduate, they will become one of Mississippi’s Finest and be welcomed into a family that is unmatched by any other agency. Until then, we thank your family for their sacrifice during this process and wish you cadets good luck.

Keep marching on and we will see you at the finish line.