New troopers patrolling highways

Published 6:00 am Thursday, January 4, 2007

A Lincoln County native, a Jefferson Davis County man and aMadison County man are among 10 recent graduates of the MississippiHighway Safety Patrol Academy assigned to District Nine – TroopM.

Barry Stingley of Flora began patrolling Lincoln County Dec. 31while Jason Leggett of Bogue Chitto and Wayne Bass of Prentiss havebeen patrolling in Lawrence County since Dec. 30. Troop M, withincludes Lincoln, Lawrence and seven other area counties, received10 of 50 new troopers who graduated from the academy inDecember.

“We started with 94 so the school was pretty intense,” Basssaid.

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Leggett agreed.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve done physically or mentally,” hesaid.

Sgt. Johnny Leggett, Jason Leggett’s father, said one-fifth ofthe graduating class was designated for Troop M because it had beenoperating far below its allotment of troopers.

“This district was one of the most short-handed in the state,”he said. “I’m glad we have them. We needed them and we need more. Ithink we’ve got a good group here.”

Trooper Josh Leggett said he was delighted his brother wasassigned to District Nine, but he would have been happy for anyadditional support.

“There’s been times we were stretched pretty thin – threetroopers covering nine counties,” he said. “Ten new troopers willcertainly help out.”

Most counties in District Nine were assigned new troopers. Asidefrom the two in Lawrence in one in Lincoln, two troopers wereassigned to Adams and Walthall counties and Pike, Jefferson andWilkinson each received one new trooper. Amite and Franklincounties were not assigned a new trooper.

Leggett, 26, comes from a long line of law enforcement officers.His father has patrolled in Lincoln County for 19 of his 20 yearsin the MHSP while his brother, Josh, has patrolled Lincoln Countyfor more than four years of his six years of service. In addition,Jason’s twin, Jesse, has been a deputy with the Lincoln CountySheriff’s Department for the past three years.

Jason and Jesse joined the sheriff’s department around the sametime, but Jason chose to move to state law enforcement because ofthe uncertainties of working for an elected official.

“The extra job security and benefits of working for the stateattracted me,” he said. “I guess it’s also a family trend.”

Jason Leggett’s academy experience may have been even moreexciting than that of most new troopers. His wife, the former JennyDavis of Bogue Chitto, gave birth to their second child, Laney, 4months, while he was attending the academy.

“She was born about the second week of patrol school,” he said.”I came home on a Thursday, brought them home Sunday about 9 a.m.and returned to school at 11 a.m. that day.”

Laney joins son Gavin, 2, in the Leggett household.

Bass, 24, a former police officer in Hattiesburg and Petal, saidhe had more to celebrate at the end of December than beginning hisMHSP career. He married the former Lacey Fortenberry of LawrenceCounty Dec. 30, one day before he began patrolling Lawrence Countyfor the MHSP.

“She’s very supportive of my career choice,” he said. “It’ssomething I’ve always wanted to do.”

Bass said they chose to live in the Silver Creek area to be inthe county he patrols, yet close to his hometown of Prentiss.

Law enforcement is a new experience for Stingley, 25.

“I worked in construction before I went to the school,” hesaid.

The Flora native said it was worth the loss of income to leavethe booming construction field to become a trooper because of thebrotherhood shared by the officers and the satisfaction of doing ajob that makes a significant difference every day.

Stingley said he hopes to eventually be assigned closer to home,but he is enjoying his assignment to Lincoln County.

“I’ve passed through Lincoln County before, but I’d never reallybeen here before now,” he said. “I like it.”

The new troopers will ride with a rotating field trainingofficer for at least 12 weeks before being released to patrol bythemselves, Johnny Leggett said. They are graded at the end of eachshift and will be evaluated at the end of the period, when it willbe determined if they can patrol solo or need more on-the-jobtraining.