Each year, the Columbus Exchange Club selects a member of the Mississippi Highway Patrol Troop G as its “Trooper of the Year.”
This year’s recipient, announced Thursday at the club’s weekly meeting at Lion Hills Center, was Master Sgt. Larry Smith, an unorthodox choice when compared to previous winners.
“It’s a very unique honor,” said Capt. Larry Conn, who presented the award to Smith on behalf of the Exchange Club. “(This) usually goes to the ones who have only been out of Trooper School for four or five years and are out there on the roads every day. So, it’s a great honor to recognize someone who has been a Trooper for 22 years.”
Smith, a Sturgis native, spends most of his time as a supervisor. In addition, he serves the MHP’s lead instructor on crash investigations.
“Larry has been instrumental in training probably every law enforcement officer in the state in accident investigations for the past 10 to 12 years,” Conn noted. “If you are in an accident and need to be clear (of fault), he’s the guy you want on the scene. If you have something to hide, he’s the last person you want to see out there.”
Conn also noted that he and Smith attended Trooper School together in 1994, which turned out to be an accident in the worst sense of the word and something that foreshadowed Smith’s role as an accident investigator and trainer.
“The gist of it is, I was actually supposed to get into Trooper School the year before,” Smith said. “Matter of fact, I was going down to the academy to pick up some paperwork before the school started, and my brother was riding with me. We got into a wreck right in front of the academy and my brother was killed.”
Smith was not badly injured in the wreck that claimed his brother’s life.
“They told me, ‘Look, you’re not going to be able to make it through the academy with this just happening,'” Smith said. “But they guaranteed me that I’d have a spot in the next class. All I had to do what let them know I still wanted to go.”
He did.
After graduation from Trooper School, Smith spent four years as a patrolman before an opportunity to take on a bigger role in crash investigations presented itself.
“It sounds kind of funny to say, but I’ve always enjoyed working wrecks,” Smith said. “I don’t enjoy seeing people get hurt, of course, but I do enjoy trying to figure out what happened from what I see on the scene.
“I thought it was a fit for me, being that I had been in a horrific wreck myself,” he added.
Smith said he soon discovered he had a natural talent for the investigations.
“It kind of fell into my lap, but once I got into it, I took to it like a duck to water,” he said. “I think being through what I’ve been through gives me a lot of insight on these terrible wrecks that we go to sometimes. The worst part about them is speaking to the family, but I’ve been where they are. I know what it’s like. I think that helps a lot.”
Smith said he was both surprised and honored to be named Trooper of the Year.
“There was nothing I did this past year that I hadn’t been doing every other year,” he said. “I didn’t do anything special this year, so I’m thinking this is a something that recognizes my body of work. For 22 years, I’ve been going out every day and just doing my job. So I’m really honored to have this award. It means a lot to me.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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