State troopers, define:

So far I have only seen the pickups parked at weigh stations. Always assumed they were just regular DOT bears. Pretty sure they are all merged into the state patrol now, with all of them having the same powers. Even the white DOT tahoes are rebadged as state patrol. I read somewhere they were going to do that, but their duties weren’t really going to change (whatever that means).

Fun fact, I also saw a white state patrol charger the other day, so who knows! They must be having an identity crisis.

 

They also have some Chargers in a light brownish color, not sure if it's considered gold or metallic tan by Dodge.

 

I live in a pretty small rural county in Iowa. Here we have the sheriffs office and two police departments (and the two PD’s are hilarious... maybe 6 or 8 squad cars between them). It is common for each to only have one or two officers on duty at any given time, so the three departments often back each other up, and the two police departments will travel anywhere in the county if needed. Not sure how typical that is with other areas.

 

Our local PD is rented out to the towns / villages around us. So they patrol the two towns on either side of us. But not the county roads in between… those are handled by sheriff office (county). Then the town my shop is in has one local police officer of their own, backed up by sheriff officer.

 

In Ma we have always called them either
Staties or troopers.
They do have assigned patrol areas. But they can go anywhere in the state.
In Ma and NH they usually take over in small cities and towns.

 

Must be a Iowa thing cause it’s the same way where I live in Iowa

 

In Georgia the State Patrol has statewide jurisdiction. But my understanding is that the state Game Wardens have much further reaching powers than the State Patrol, including traffic control.

 

Proof that it's about collecting revenue instead of promoting highway safety.

 

Well I don't disagree it seems to be that way some places, in Colorado's case they were Department of Revenue from back in the ton-mile tax days.