Trooper Ryan Davis has been a trooper with the Kansas Highway Patrol (KHP) for over three years. He attended Salina South High School during the construction period and graduated before they finished in 2017. 

Davis is a second generation trooper taking after his father. Lieutenant Crag Davis, who graduated from the KHP with Class #25 in 1989. His father being a trooper is what first drew Davis to wanting to be in the KHP. 

“Ever since I was a kid, I was drawn to it because he came home and he always had a hard day’s work,” Davis said. “And the uniform and looking nice and it’s a noble job.” 

During his time at the academy, he hoped that he could become like his dad but was not too worried since he was always similar to him. 

Describing the six month long academy as para-militaristic with some psychological aspects thrown in, having the mindset of really wanting the job is what got him through. 

Learning how to do the job was the hard part but what many don’t realize how hard it is to manage strange work hours. With working both night and morning shifts, there is a challenge of what the day is going to look like. 

“It’s a little tough in the beginning, but when you do it for a little bit you get used to it. Sometimes I’ll come home with a terrible headache from just kinda some of the stress aspects of the job.” Davis said. 

With the job there are no set goals and no quota to meet but, there are still little goals that they have for themselves. For Davis, he said that he always has a yearly goal. He likes to at least match or increase his number of certain stops. To him, it is also important to stay busy while he’s out on the roads. 

Davis wants to give himself at least 5 years before he makes any other career decisions. Despite being interested in other aspects of the job, he likes being on the road and plans to stay there for a bit of time.