[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 106 (Friday, July 31, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S9550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           IN HONOR OF KENTUCKY STATE POLICE 50TH ANNIVERSARY

  Mr. FORD. Mr President. In 1948, back in my home state of Kentucky, 
Governor Earle C. Clements made the Commonwealth the 38th state to 
enact a State Police Act. Kentucky was changing rapidly, and Governor 
Clements saw a need for a statewide police force to support the local 
authorities. With this measure, Kentucky kicked off fifty proud years 
of state police enforcement.
  For each twist and turn through the last half century, the Kentucky 
State Police have responded by continuing to push themselves to provide 
the best service they can to protect Kentuckians. The police motto is 
``To Serve and Protect,'' but the Kentucky State Police have another 
slogan as well--``A Proud Past . . . A Prouder Tomorrow.'' That says it 
all about this group of men and women so committed to Kentucky.
  The first decade of the agency brought the very first pay raise to 
state police officers. Their pay went from $130 to $150 a month. In the 
Fifties, the state police took to the air with the first aircraft 
purchase while they still patrolled the highways in ``incognito 
squads,'' as they called them, checking for speeders and overweight 
trucks.
  The Sixties put the officers in gray cars just like their gray 
uniforms, creating an instantly recognizable presence in person and on 
the roadways. The Kentucky State Police responded to a need they 
perceived statewide by creating Trooper Island, a cost-free summer camp 
for underprivileged boys on a former Army Corps of Engineers island in 
Dale Hollow Lake. To this day, boys and girls who otherwise would be 
unable to attend a camp come for a wonderful week of fun dedicated to 
the development of their self-images.
  The Seventies brought massive upheaval to the entire country, and 
Kentucky was no different. A drug enforcement unit became necessary for 
the agency, and the first female trooper was hired. A computerized 
network was set up linking state and local law enforcement to crime 
information.
  In the Eighties, the Kentucky State Police coordinated with the 
Kentucky National Guard to begin a full scale marijuana eradication 
effort. In response to a national movement, a toll-free hotline for 
reporting drunken drivers was established. And this decade brought 
video cameras installed in patrol cars, a centralized laboratory with 
state-of-the-art equipment, and the 911 phone system in local 
communities was linked to the statewide network. Today there are 
sixteen field posts distributed throughout the state, 1,000 officers, 
and comprehensive law enforcement resources. The Kentucky State Police 
have responded to each and every change, continually making themselves 
to be the best force they could be.
  In light of recent events at the Capitol, I am more aware than ever 
of the ways police put themselves on the line to protect our safety 
each and every day. It takes a special calling and an extraordinary 
commitment to choose police work as your life's work. They have chosen 
to get up every day and protect us. They do it even though we often 
take them for granted, even though the work can be thankless, even 
though they could lose their life. I am so appreciative of those men 
and women who serve this country in such a noble way, and today I want 
to honor the men and women of the Kentucky State Police who have served 
Kentucky in their own noble way for fifty years.

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