NEWBERRY — Sgt. Joseph T. Morf of the S.C. Highway Patrol Department headlined the Newberry County Chamber of Commerce’s quarterly breakfast on Tuesday and took the opportunity to do some recruiting.
One of just 19 patrolmen in Post A of Troop 2, Morf believes his department is understaffed.
“I hear stories from the guys that have been on the Highway Patrol a lot longer than I have where there were a little over 50 troopers here,” he said. “This was back in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, the days of poker machines and all that stuff when South Carolina had a lot of money.”
Furthermore, it is difficult to convince people to apply for the patrol, said Morf.
“It takes a special person to do what we do,” he said. “Not that it’s rocket science. It doesn’t take a genius to do what we do. But you’re coming to a job where you’re not going to get rich and you face a lot of pressure from, not only the agency itself, but from the public.”
However, Morf said while public pressure makes the job difficult, the public should not only expect but demand professionalism from law enforcement.
“If you know people that are interested in the highway patrol encourage them to go online and apply. We desperately, desperately need people to come and work with us,” he said. “The Highway Patrol is obviously a big organization. We cover the whole state of South Carolina.”
The S.C. Highway Patrol is broken down into 11 different units called Troops. Troops 1 through 7 incorporate all counties in the state while Troops 8 to 11 are specialized units. Morf is assigned to Troop 2 which, among many other locales, is responsible for Newberry.
Morf said the top causes of auto fatalities in the state are speeding, failure to wear a seat belt, and driving under the influence.
“As small of a state as we are, (South Carolina) is always in the top five for DUI related fatalities,” he said.
He estimates, however, the patrol catches more flak for seat belt stops than any other violation he has ever seen in his career.
He said that many refuse to wear seat belts claiming they knew of someone who died in an accident where they were unable to exit their vehicle as it burned up or sank into a pond.
“I’ve been working in law enforcement for a long time. I don’t know if I have ever worked a wreck where someone crashed into a pond and drowned,” he said.
Morf, who is originally from Woodruff, enlisted in the military right out of high school in 1994. After returning from Germany in 1999 Morf found himself living with his parents.
Soon after he became employed in the flooring department at Lowe’s.
“Anybody ever work retail?” Morf asked those in attendance. “I didn’t particularly care for it that much. It was a big shock for me coming from a military structure to a retail structure.”
One day he was approached by a uniformed Highway Patrolman who inquired as to his future plans.
“I’m going to apply to USCS (Spartanburg), I’m going to go to school,” Morf recalled saying. “He said, ‘You ought to come on the Highway Patrol.’”
Considering that four additional years of school also meant four more years living at home, Morf said he thought to himself, “Maybe I will apply for the Highway Patrol.”
He was hired in the winter of 2000 and assigned to Lancaster County. In December 2001, he transferred to Newberry and has remained here since.
“It looks like I’m going to be here for the rest of my career,” he said.