It’s been four years since the Missouri General Assembly voted to merge the Missouri State Highway Patrol with the Water Patrol. Representative Pat Conway sits on an interim committee created to look into the newly merged divisions. The St Joseph Democrat says he voted in favor of the merger back in 2010, acting largely for economic reasons at a time when lawmakers had to cut millions of dollars from the state budget. Now the committee is analyzing the merged department’s funding and training.

“This meeting will probably focus more on river activity and small lake activity, rather than what normally happens in their procedures at Lake of the Ozarks, or Bull Shoals, Taneycomo or some of those lakes,” Conway said.

“We will have members of the local troop, both those who are supervising and those who have spent time as Water Patrol or Highway Patrol, because now the troopers do joint activity. They’re not specified to road or to water.”

“That’s what we’re looking at, what the training is and how the merger has affected each of the troops. So, we’re interested in what’s happening in Northwest Missouri, and I think this will be a good indication, and we’ll have some good communication.”

The renewed look at the Water Division was prompted in part by a tragedy last summer. Twenty-year-old Brandon Ellingson of Columbia, Missouri drowned at Lake of the Ozarks after he was arrested on suspicion of boating while intoxicated. Witnesses say Ellingson was handcuffed when he either fell or jumped overboard while in custody in a Water Patrol boat.

Thursday’s public hearing starts at 10am at the Remington Nature Center at 1502 MacArthur Drive in St Joseph.