Winton enjoys element of freedom

John Walker
The Duncan Banner

Fri, May 16 2008

— 8:00 a.m. Get in the car.
8:05 a.m. Wash the car.
8:10 a.m. Drive.
When Oklahoma Highway Patrol (OHP) Trooper Thomas Winton works the day shift, he usually starts by making sure his vehicle is spic and span.
“It adds a degree of professional appearance that OHP expects us to keep,” Winton said.
For Winton, like any other OHP trooper, his office is literally inside his vehicle because he travels so much.
“We can travel wherever we want to in Oklahoma,” he said. “It adds an element of freedom because I don’t have an area that I can’t leave. When I reach the city limits, I don’t have to turn back. It’s nice.”
While Winton loves this element of freedom that comes from traversing roadways around the countryside, he is still somewhat relegated to work just in Stephens and Jefferson counties.
“But if I want to travel outside of those counties, I can notify my headquarters in Lawton,” he said.
One path that Winton sometimes traverses is east on Oklahoma Highway 7, then south on Oklahoma Highway 89, then west on U.S. Highway 70 to Waurika before making his way back on up to Duncan.
Sometimes, a vehicle will be parked on the side of the road.
Winton will pull over and check to make sure everything is OK. If no one is in the vehicle, he will check the license number and then post a note on the side of the vehicle saying it needs to be removed within a certain time period or it will be towed away.
Other times, if someone is inside the vehicle and the tire is flat, Winton will change it.
“I’ve changed a bunch of flat tires,” he said.
If the vehicle has run out of gas, he can even funnel fuel from his gas tank to the other vehicle.
When there is a young child inside the vehicle, Winton will smile and hand the kid a sticker.
“Kids are awesome,” he said.
While driving the back roads, county roads and state highways, Winton checks the speed of traffic he passes.
It is not uncommon for him to start driving off in one direction and end up taking hours to reach any specific destination.
“With this job, you can be as busy as you want to be,” Winton said. “I’m always busy it seems, though.”
While most of Winton’s traffic stops last only a few minutes, if he pulls a commercial vehicle over, however, the stop could last for hours if he does a full inspection on it.
The reason is because some commercial vehicles can fall under federal laws as well as state.
To enforce federal law on commercial vehicles, Winton had to attend special training.
“It ended up being interesting, but the paperwork that is required is extensive,” he said.
“I stopped one commercial vehicle and it took six hours to complete the inspection.”
When Winton inspects a commercial vehicle, he checks to make sure the driver has a commercial driver’s license, which is required if the combined gross vehicle weight is rated for over 26,000 pounds.
“There are a couple of exceptions, but that’s the general rule,” he said.
After checking the status of the driver’s commercial driver’s license, Winton checks the safety and security of the vehicle, makes sure the lights work, brakes are good, and tires are in working order, among other things.
All these rules are meant to prevent casualties and Winton takes his responsibility to help prevent accidents seriously.
“The hardest thing is to notify someone’s family of a death of a loved one,” he said.
“I hate seeing the looks on their faces. It’s something you don’t forget. If I can prevent an accident from occurring, I feel blessed.”
Winton knew he wanted to enter law enforcement ever since he was little.
“My uncle was one of the ones who started the Stephens County Sheriff’s Reserve,” he said.
“I was always around law enforcement, but I really admired the Highway Patrol officers.”
When Winton was finished with school, he was still too young to enter OHP, so he applied successfully to work with the Duncan Police Department in 1997.
“I worked there for three years,” he said.
“It was the best training I had for this job. When you’re an OHP officer, you’re on your own most of the time and knowing what to do in any given situation is important, but really only comes from experience.
“My personal opinion is that anyone who wants to become an OHP officer should be required to spend at least a couple of years with a municipal police department like Duncan’s.”

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