The State Highway Patrol says it is taking steps to deal with trooper misconduct, following years of public embarrassment over ethical lapses among the rank-and-file and their supervisors.
The SHP has partnered with SAS to develop software that will track and analyze misconduct, with the intention of preventing problems before they get to the point they require punishment. The patrol has also trained more than 400 supervisors in 36-hour leadership classes based on FBI training, according to a news release the patrol sent out today.
The patrol’s news release doesn’t specifically address the many recommendations that came out of the Leadership Advisory Group report, which was released in January, nor the extensive 2008 report by an outside consulting firm. The SHP says it took into consideration all the issues raised, but decided to focus on spotting problem employees and reinforcing ethics among supervisors.
Also not mentioned was one major recommendation that came out of the governor’s panel’s investigation: changing state law to allow the head of the patrol to be hired from outside the ranks. Two Republican members of the state House, Rep. Nelson Dollar of Cary and Rep. John Faircloth of High Point, introduced such a bill this year but it never advanced.
