Georgia State Patrol in Statewide Hiring Campaign

The Georgia State Patrol is looking for a few good men and women to help fill out their numbers across the state.

Major Tommy Waldrop, Commanding Officer of the Georgia State Patrol says there a shortage of manpower in the State Patrol and they are currently hiring.

Waldrop says they plan to fill vacant positions in all of the Troop B posts.

“With the pay raise the Governor has given us, hopefully that will help us recruit new people,” Waldrop said. “Gainesville is a busy post, Toccoa is a busy post, Athens an extremely busy post. We’ve got a lot of activity and there’s a lot of things we need to be doing that we’re not doing, such as working more crashes and assisting the sheriff’s office and police departments. And we need more people to do that.”

Waldrop says they are also short-staffed at the new GSP Hartwell Post where he said they hope to get up to a staff of 14 there.

The Georgia State Patrol is looking to add a total of 180 new troopers across the state.

One good thing about the short-staffing situation for new troopers, according to Waldrop, is a change in policy regarding where they are stationed when they graduate trooper school.

“Pretty much now, when we recruit someone from a certain area, because we’re so short-handed we can send them back to that area. We can pretty much tell them we’re going to send them back home now. And that’s good for the trooper and the community because he knows the area, knows the people and everything that goes on in the area; especially if he’s lived there for awhile,” Waldrop explained.

The GSP Troop B recruiter is stationed in the Hartwell Post and Waldrop says anyone interested in learning more about becoming a Georgia State Patrol trooper should contact him.

“We actually have a recruiter who works out of the Hartwell Post,” Waldrop said. “His name is trooper Dave Snyder. He’s the Troop Recruiting Officer. He does put on job fairs and visits areas to get the recruiting message out.”

Currently, the GSP is hiring for the next trooper school, which is expected to begin next year.

For more information you can contact Trooper Dave Snyder at 706-356-3542.