New Highway Patrol chief stresses integrity

"Service to the public is what we're all about," said Glover, who broke down in tears while speaking to a crowd of troopers and state officials. His wife, Cindy, and daughters Laura, Tiffany and Taylor also were present.

Being a trooper "is a symbol of honor, a badge of protection," he said. "Love your profession as I do. Learn from your mistakes as I have."

Gov. Beverly Perdue said she has watched Glover rise through the patrol's ranks during his 29-year career, including a stint as a trooper in her hometown of New Bern.

"It became clear to me he could lead by example," Perdue said.

The Nashville native most recently served as the Highway Patrol's director of field operations. He is a graduate of the Southern Police Institute in Louisville and is a member of the Southern Police Institute Association.

"I never aspired to be the colonel. I never aspired to be a commissioned officer," he said.

Glover is North Carolina's 24th Highway Patrol commander. He succeeds Col. Walter Wilson, who recently retired after serving as commander for the past year.

Perdue said Glover has already revamped the role of supervisors within the agency and ordered that all 1,800-plus troopers will go through ethics training.

"This patrol is one big family, and if there's one success, it's everybody's success. If there's one shortcoming, that shortcoming belongs to the whole patrol," the governor said.

A number of troopers and officers within the Highway Patrol have been disciplined or fired in the past couple of years for offenses that included profiling young women for traffic stops, drunken driving, animal abuse and having sex on duty.

"This is a small percentage of individuals causing us problems, but the Highway Patrol as a total suffers when things happen like that," Glover said. "(It's) not that we have a rampant amount of individuals that don't have ethics. I just think its something that you have to continuously talk about so it will be in your mind at all times."

He said he wants to "get back to basics" and stressed integrity, pride, honor and community involvement.

"I will not be swayed by special interests, personal bias or politics," he said.

The Highway Patrol was created in 1929, and it employs 1,823 troopers to patrol more than 78,000 miles of North Carolina roadways.