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RICK ALLEN GARRISON

MISSISSIPPI STATE TROOPER OF THE YEAR

1998

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Randolph trooper wins state honor

 

Rick Garrison says he won't rest on his laurels after being named Trooper of the Year.

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By Michaela Gibson Morris

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Daily Journal

 

TROOPER OF THE YEAR

Randolph resident Rick Garrison patrols Calhoun County in the Starkville District

 

 

The newest state Trooper of the Year said he has no plans to sit back and bask in the glory of the award.

"I really can't do that," said Trooper Rick A. Garrison, who has served 3 ½ years in the highway patrol.  "I'm still what most people classify as a rookie."

A Randolph resident, Garrison patrols in Calhoun County and said he was surprised to receive the top award for state Highway Patrol troopers given by the Mississippi District Exchange Clubs.

Garrison, 29, who also was chosen as the trooper of the year for the Starkville district, was presented with the statewide award in mid-June.

"It seems like such an honored position." He said.

Garrison said the professionalism, pride and quality of other troopers who've received the top award is evident.

Now that he's joined their ranks, he wonders if "maybe someone's seeing that in me."

   

Enthusiasm

Garrison's enthusiasm for the highway patrol shows through, his supervisors say.

"He's very conscientious and he loves his job," said Master Sgt. Hays Stewart, Garrison's supervisor and a Trooper of the Year winner himself.  "He's just doing a good job."

Keeping drunk drivers off the road and drugs off the street are at the heart of Garrison's focus as a trooper.

"He carries a torch to get drunk drivers off the road." Stewart said.

In 1997, Garrison made 142 DUI arrests.  Garrison also was recognized for seizing the most cocaine and marijuana and making the most felony arrests in the Starkville District in 1997.

As he transports drunk drivers to jail, Garrison often wonders about what could have happened.

"I think about all the cars we're meeting, (and wonder) would this person have made it past them," Garrison said.

Although the scenes of fatal wrecks caused by drunk driving are wrenching, the foundation of Garrison's crusade against drunk driving comes from the families left behind.

"You go knock on a door to notify the parents and tell them that their kids is not coming home again," Garrison said.  "There's nothing as devastating as that."

 

Persistence pays off

Although he's a trooper of the year now, Garrison had to be very persistent to get a shot at joining the highway patrol.

Garrison, who had no prior law enforcement background, applied for the highway patrol twice before he was accepted into the grueling ___ week program.

"It was something I always wanted to do," he said.

Garrison patrolled Webster County before being transferred to Calhoun County -- just a stone's throw from his Pontotoc County hometown, where he lives with his wife Lori and their 2 ½-year-old daughter.  His parents, Troy and Mary Garrison, still live nearby.

Because he has worked at Action Furniture and not in law enforcement before being a trooper, some people had to adjust the hard way to Garrison's new career.

Garrison said he remembers having to arrest several people he knew for drunk driving.

"It was tough for the first few months," Garrison said.  "One day I'm building furniture, and locking folks up the next."

Garrison said his colleagues have been very supportive and proud of his award.

Another longtime trooper that Garrison once called a decorated veteran paid him a high compliment, he said.

"He told me I'm fast becoming a decorated veteran," Garrison said.

 

 

 

 

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