Soldiers of the Law

About the Book

When Oklahoma became a state in 1907, there was no state-wide law enforcement agency. Unlike other states that had been created from organized territories settled over long periods of time, Oklahoma was formed from various Indian Territories that were opened to white settlement beginning in 1889. Over a period of only seventeen years, through land runs, lotteries, and sealed bids, this new state was born. Its citizens were proud, independent people determined to maintain local control of their schools, utilities, law enforcement, and other community agencies. By the 1930s, the development of the automobile and roads on which they traveled, brought bootleggers, bandits, and other criminals to all areas of the state. The people of Oklahoma finally agreed to the establishment of the Department of Public Safety with a highway patrol in 1937.

The author uses standard ethnographic research methods to write an account of the early days of the Oklahoma Highway Patrol designed to be of assistance to historians interested in local and state history and yet, be informative and enjoyable to the general public. Factual history has been woven together with personal information from scrapbooks; interviews with nine former patrolmen, family members, and friends; and personal memories of the author, the daughter of a patrolman, to give an account of what it was like to be an Oklahoma Highway Patrolman from 1937 through 1964. Ending a car chase by shooting out tires, sitting at road blocks for days at a time, holding a patient as his arm was amputated, diving into a creek to retrieve the body of a local boy, picking up body parts at the scene of a wreck, conducting a safety quiz show for elementary children, and playing practical jokes on a partner are a few of the stories that are included.

There is a brief history of Oklahoma with information about the development of the Department of Public Safety and divisions that were established as needs arose. This book also addresses some issues of local and state politics and how they affected the Department of Public Safety, individual patrolmen, as well as their families. Promotions, demotions, transfers, and commendations played an important part in the nature of the life and job of a patrolman.

Difficulties related to attracting competent patrolmen, training them, and keeping them on the job are addressed. The first patrol schools in 1937 were three weeks of intensive military-type training designed to get men out on the roads as soon as possible. Over the years, wars, lack of funding, low pay, and frustrations from political intervention affected the designs of the schools and the quality and quantity of men who were willing to serve as “Soldiers of the Law” in Oklahoma.

Since the author uses her father’s diaries for a great deal of the information, much of the focus of this book is on his career as a patrolman/educator. It follows C.A. Morris as he works in several smaller communities as a trooper and in a large district as a supervisor or second lieutenant, setting up safety education programs as well as carrying out his responsibilities in the area of law enforcement. His frustrations as he tries to encourage other troopers to get along with one another and members of their communities, the increasing numbers of traffic fatalities, and decreasing budgets with aging equipment and additional responsibilities, along with other community changes during the 1960s are threads that weave through this book. The importance of a patrolman’s family and personal life is also a major theme. The story ends when, after twenty-one years, Morris retires from the patrol in 1964 at the age of fifty-seven.

A Post Script gives a brief summary of the lives of each interviewed former trooper after leaving the patrol. This book also includes a Map, eleven Illustrations (vintage photographs), Notes, References, Appendices, and an Index.

About the Author

Donna Morris Stephens was born and grew up in Oklahoma in the 1940s and 1950s where her father was an Oklahoma Highway Patrolman. She received a Bachelor’s Degree from Oklahoma State University and a Master’s Degree and Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the University of Maryland, College Park in areas of education. After working over thirty years as a teacher and administrator, she retired to write the stories of people and the times in which they live.