Birmingham, AL – A recruiting drive has boosted the ranks of reserve officers joining Alabama state troopers on patrols and in administrative work.
The Department of Public Safety has had a trooper reserve unit for years, but it was almost inactive and had at one point dropped to three members.
There are now 59 reservists in the newly revitalized statewide unit.
One of them, Mountain Brook financial planner Paul Tierney, says he lost 95 pounds to pass the required physical and became a reservist in March. His help with a drug seizure on Interstate 65 in April brought him a special DPS commendation - the only one ever awarded to a reservist.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)