CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Testing for the next Class of the West Virginia State Police is underway and it comes none too soon according to the State Police Superintendent Jan Cahill.
“We’ve had as many as 700 troopers in the past and today we stand at 613,” said Cahill on MetroNews Talkline. “We used to be we had about one class a year and we have not hired anyone since December 1, 2014, so that’s well over three years now.”
Cahill added with the time it takes for advertising, background checks, and training it will be close to four years before a new class is in place. The current class will be moved up a little faster since the class for which the department is now testing will be an accelerated class. But it also limits the potential pool of candidates since those applying must already be law enforcement officers with other agencies.
The manpower shortage in the agency is starting to reach a dangerous situation. Last year a trooper was shot on a call in Lincoln County. Although the trooper recovered, Cahill said he had no backup.
“He was the only officer, city, county, state, federal anybody out at 2:30 in the morning going out on an armed hostage situation with a guy strung out on meth for a few days,” explained Cahill.
But the loss is also evident in the eastern panhandle where federal agencies and surrounding states find West Virginia a fertile ground for recruitment. The reputation of the West Virginia State Police and the quality training at the academy makes a West Virginia trooper a valuable commodity to another agency.
“I think it would surprise people,” Cahill explained. “A large percentage of our guys have their bachelor degree, 18 have a masters, we have a guy who is going to have his PhD in May. We have six licensed pilots, we have an attorney, and we even have trooper who is a West Point graduate.”
Other troopers have previous education degrees from WVU, Marshall, Virginia Tech, Kentucky, and VMI in addition to the U.S. Military Academy grad.
Cahill hoped to get 60 to 70 applicants for the accelerated class and plans to return to the legislature next year and seek another class of around 40 troopers to get the manpower level back to where it needs to be.