Ohio Truck Shield, a joint program of the Ohio Trucking Association and the Ohio Highway Patrol launched earlier this year, has already trained 500 truck drivers to watch for criminal activity on the roads.
The Truck Shield program grew out of the patrol鈥檚 realization that a little bit of training can go a long way, Highway Patrol Spokeswoman Lt. Anne Ralston told Transport Topics.
The program trains truckers to spot suspicious activity that could signal driving while impaired, terrorist activity, human trafficking or drug transporting.
鈥淲e can all be taught, 鈥楥all if you see an impaired driver, call if you see driver activity, call if you see human trafficking,鈥 鈥 Ralston said. 鈥淏ut if we鈥檙e not educating people in what those things look like, then are we getting quality information as a law enforcement agency?鈥
Truck drivers who see something suspicious call into a 677 phone line set up especially for them to contact the highway patrol.
Law enforcement officers cannot be everywhere at every moment and there are 鈥渓ots more truck drivers out there than there are law enforcement officers and [the drivers] know best what鈥檚 going on,鈥 Ralston said.
Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. John Born reached out to the OTA asking it to be a partner in the training program, said Larry Woolum, OTA鈥檚 director of regulatory affairs.
鈥淲e enjoy a very good working relationship with the highway patrol and it goes both ways,鈥 said Woolum. He and OTA President Larry Davis are former highway patrol officers.
鈥淸We are] both professional organizations that are working for the same . . . goal, highway safety,鈥 Woolum said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the environment that our drivers work in that we share with the motoring public and there鈥檚 criminals out there using our highways.鈥
Transport Topics
