Mom, daughter are 1st to serve as NY state troopers together

ALBANY, N.Y. – A veteran state trooper and her rookie daughter have become the first mother and daughter to serve in uniform at the same time in the centurylong history of the New York State Police.

Trooper Meagan Hartmann recently graduated from the State Police Academy, joining her mother, Bethany Lamphere, as a uniformed trooper. The mother and daughter work at stations 60 miles apart in central New York.

Lamphere was a mother of three children, ages 6, 10 and 12, when she became a trooper in 2001. She had earned the required college credits to enter the police academy, then passed the state police entrance exam. She was 27 when she graduated from the academy.

Other than a two-year stint as an investigator, Lamphere has spent her career on road patrol in areas of central and northern New York.

Hartmann grew up hearing her mother tell stories about her job as a trooper. The daughter entered the State Police Academy at the end of March and graduated Oct. 12, with Lamphere presenting Hartmann with her shield at the ceremony in Albany.

The agency said Lamphere and Hartmann “both feel it is an honour to be able to be part of the great history and future of protecting and serving the people of this state for such an elite agency.”

The state police, founded in 1917, accepted its first female recruits in 1973, and four graduated from the academy the following year. More than 400 women are serving in the 5,000-member law enforcement agency, state police officials said.