State troopers, define:

For those of who actually still use radios that is...

 

I learned this not long ago. I don't know if its 100% true but it was a documentary about Louisiana state police or Louisiana in general or something & the statement was made was the difference between State police, state troopers & Highway patrol.

In Louisiana they are state police. It is one agency. It includes state police crime lab, white collar crime investigations, traffic , traffic safety (DOT/FMCSA), etc etc all in one. They are all state police.

In some states, they have state bureau of ..... etc. Then Highway Patrol which only works traffic. Then a "DOT" section etc, etc

Then other states have all separate divisions but with state troopers. I'm not sure of all the various divisions etc, & certainly not for each state but you get the gist.

For example. The La State police can work traffic & bank robberies for example. If a bank is robbed, the same state police that just wrote a traffic ticket comes off the road & helps work a bank robbery. Of course they have a division that specialises in bank robbery type offences that come in & take over the investigation but they are all under the same title... state police & they are the managing agency for certain felonies like white collar crimes.
While in other state, you have a patrol division & that's all they do.... Hwy Patrol... traffic... tickets & accidents.

Again, I can not verify any specifics on this, especially for other states. But that was the basic discussion in the documentary about LSP.

 

I had to deal with a couple of those F Troop guys a while back. Whew!