‘I Want My Husband to Quit’: Highway Patrol Families Speak Out as Pay Crisis Deepens

The wife of a veteran Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper has had enough. After watching for eight years as the agency deteriorated around her husband—overtime eliminated, staffing so short he’s called out in the middle of the night to drive unplowed highways to remote crashes alone—she wants him out.

“I want my husband to quit this agency because WHP leadership has shown, through its choices, that it values administrative hierarchy over frontline service, budget optics over safety, and command authority over the people who actually patrol Wyoming’s roads,” she writes in an anonymous account published by the Wyoming Highway Patrol Association.

Her story, titled “I Want My Husband to Quit WHP,” is one of dozens collected by the association in its first-ever social media campaign, launched as the Legislature debates the 2026 budget. The man behind it is Lt. Matt Arnell, a 25-year veteran who doesn’t use Facebook—but knew he had to learn.

“This is the first time that we’ve ever tried this, to launch a campaign like this—social media and online,” Arnell said. “I’m kind of learning as I go here.”

The campaign’s most potent voices have been spouses. Another wife writes of watching “my husband’s light dim, the pride he once carried replaced by quiet exhaustion and heartbreak.” Trooper Austin Bluemel, the association’s vice president, said those posts reframe the issue. “It’s coming from a spouse talking about what they’re going through and what they see.”

The numbers back the emotion. The patrol has lost 178 troopers to voluntary resignation over five years—a 56% attrition rate. Twenty-eight of 208 sworn positions sit vacant. The Communications Center faces 37% vacancies, with all 44 dispatch positions turning over within five years, costing $1.2 million in training alone.

In December, the patrol eliminated overtime pay after what the wife’s account describes as “so badly mismanaged their funds” that no money remained. Troopers now receive flex time off instead—compounding staffing shortages when they take it.

Starting trooper pay in Wyoming is about $60,949, ranking 44th nationally. The regional average is nearly $81,000. Each departing trooper costs the state an estimated $116,717 in training and equipment investment.

Bluemel, an 11-year veteran earning about $80,000, said he could start at the Lyman Police Department down the road for $96,000. “That should be embarrassing,” he said. “We shouldn’t have our state troopers actively looking at smaller agencies because they pay better.”

The association supports the governor’s proposal to bring state employees to 2024 pay levels—a pay adjustment, not a raise, since they’re currently compensated at 2022 rates. The House and Senate have both moved versions of employee raises, though details must be reconciled.

A separate bill providing monthly death benefits for troopers, DCI agents and wardens killed in the line of duty passed the House 61-0. Surviving spouses would receive 90% of the officer’s salary, plus 6% for each child under 18.

Arnell said the campaign is about all state employees. “They’re in the hurt locker as well,” he said. But the stories from home hit hardest. “I want my husband to quit,” the wife wrote. “Because WHP leadership has shown… that it values command authority over the people who actually patrol Wyoming’s roads.”