State looking for Millennial troopers

Aspiring Connecticut State Police Troopers must embrace technology from another age: There’s a printed map in every patrol car and a fax machine in every office.

But millennials thinking about joining the troopers should know that the CSP is embracing their era’s technology, too.

On Thursday, State Police spokeswoman Trooper First Class Kelly Grant will take to Twitter to live-stream troopers’ typical workdays using #CSPTweetAlong.

“We’re going to do video (and) dispatches of roll call and introductions from troopers with different backgrounds,” Grant said in a phone interview Tuesday.

Imagine, for example, a college senior considering joining the agency, Kelly said, “There are people who are on the fence.”

The main focus of the event is recruitment, she said, but it’s also “to give the public an idea of what we do, or don’t do.”

Grant said the event should counter stereotypes seen in sophomoric police comedies and adrenaline-juiced police dramas.

Grant and her team communicate with more than 30,000 followers on Twitter in posts that range from dramatic to cute.

People have seen a tweet from the Connecticut State Police 6 million times, according to the analytics site Social Bearing. In a recent snowstorm, the account released a video of a pileup of vehicles on a snowy highway that closed down the road.

The CSP’s live Twitter sketch has the potential to capture the real mix of action, service and monotony that makes up police work. In a sense, the way Grant is approaching her Twitter portrait of CSP live is reminiscent of A&E’s “LivePD” television show, which aired last fall and included Bridgeport police on the job.

Cameramen for that program followed Bridgeport officers on routine calls, only editing the content lightly.

Grant’s main goal for Thursday is to attract a large, qualified and diverse set of talent for the CSP ahead of an April 11 test registration deadline.

“If they are interested, they should take the test anyway,” she said. “You can always say ‘no.’ ”

Test takers are not required to cram for the test, but should be ready for their “judgment, map-reading skills, and decision making” to be assessed, according to Grant.

That’s right: map reading skills.

“Sometimes you lose service,” Grant said.

Grant, who is African American, became a trooper after working as a Nagatuck police officer for five years. She took the reins as state police spokeswoman from Lt. J. Paul Vance two years ago, expanding the department’s communications on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

“We certainly encourage women and minorities to apply,” she said. “That’s part of what the tweet event is about ... to show them that lots of people do the job.”

Grant stressed that women with children can lead successful careers with the Connecticut State Police and still have a full family life, as long as they’re ready for a bit of a shakeup in their hours.

“There are multiple sets of married troopers,” she said. “Your life will change, but you also learn to change with it.”

Unlike Vance, who relied heavily on TV news organizations to get the department’s message out, Grant’s communications team posts wanted posters, road closures, and videos straight to Twitter.

But while social media can sometimes give public agencies a way to sidestep the press, Grant’s online work hasn’t reduced the CSP’s media availability.

Nor has social media supplanted the state police’s traditional brick-and-mortar recruiting events.

On Wednesday, troopers scheduled visits at Pace University, in Pleasantville, N.Y., and to Western New England University, in Springfield, Mass. Many more recruitment and “coffee with a cop” outreach events are held regularly, all publicized on CSP social media pages.

To become a state trooper, applicants must be at least 20 years old, be clear of all felony and certain misdemeanor convictions, and be U.S. citizens.

Test takers can download a study guide. The exam runs 135 minutes and consists of 80 multiple choice questions, and is administered at a Cheshire testing center, between Naugatuck and the CSP headquarters in Middletown.

Testing dates are being offered at different times of day in April and May.

Grant hopes that the outreach online and in person can show people that CSP troopers do a lot more than patrol the highways and issue tickets.