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Published on Saturday, July 24, 2004
in the St. Petersburg Times
The officers are among the eight new members of the Florida Highway Patrol's Troop C.
Three new state troopers will begin patrolling the county's roads in a few weeks.
On Aug. 13 Glenn Crima Jr., 35, Anthony Parente, 47, and Jose Ramos, 27, will report for duty at the Land O'Lakes District Office at State Road 52 and the Suncoast Parkway.
They will be sharing a heavy load with 38 existing troopers in the district, which spans all of Pasco.
Trooper Larry Coggins, an FHP spokesman, said the recruits will be a welcome addition to the county, whose high volume of vehicle crashes make it one of the busier traffic spots in the region.
"Pasco's rapid growth and increase in traffic is one of the reasons why we're adding people to those areas," Coggins said.
This year, he said, 40 people have been killed on Pasco roads. Statewide, 46 troopers graduated with the FHP Training Academy's 107th recruit class in Tallahassee on Thursday. The 26-week academy teaches everything from basic law enforcement standards to crash and DUI investigation procedures, Coggins said.
Crima, Parente and Ramos will join five other new troopers in FHP's Troop C, which covers Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Polk, Hernando, Citrus and Sumter counties, elevating the total number to 209.
Hillsborough's Tampa District will receive one new trooper, and Polk's Lakeland District will receive four.