Northern alumna Casey Ruth is the first female to be named Maryland State Trooper of the Year.
Ruth with her parents at the awards ceremony.
by Ian Cleary and Becca Emerson
Making history, Northern alumnus Casey Ruth’s years of hard work paid off when she received the Maryland State Trooper of the Year award this spring. Her journey to success began all the way back here at Northern High School where she took the classes that shaped her outstanding career.
Ruth graduated from Northern in 2008. She was on The Patriot Press staff during her high school years. She knew she wanted to become a Maryland State Trooper since her junior year after taking criminal justice courses. Due to her appreciation of the material and Mr. Barley’s enthusiasm in class, she fell in love with criminal justice. “When you have a teacher that loves and believes in the material they’re teaching, it becomes contagious. His passion for the criminal justice system is unwavering and imprinted his passion for law enforcement on me,” said Ruth. “He’s a huge reason I am where I am today.”
Mr. Ben Barley had high expectations for Ruth when she was in high school. “I just knew she was gonna go far because she was one of the ones early on that knew exactly what she wanted to do. She was also really dedicated to the tests we performed, and she took them very seriously,” he explained.
She attended James Madison University where she continued to pursue a Justice Studies degree with a concentration in crime and criminology. Ruth was told she would never get accepted to the Maryland State Police (MSP) because she had no prior law enforcement or military experience. “I ignored those rumors and started the process with MSP my senior year in college,” said Ruth. She used those rumors as motivation to achieve her goal. “I wanted to create a good reputation for myself through that would follow me for years to come through MSP,” she said.
Ruth with her sister, senior Brooke Ruth.
Ruth graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in 2012. She was chosen for the 139th MSP candidate class in which she started her training for the job a few months later. After eight weeks of training, she attended the Police Academy where it was a long process of six months to become a trooper and hit the streets. One person who led her through training was senior trooper Eric Evans. “Trooper Evans taught me everything I needed to know about being a successful trooper within the MSP,” she said.
Another great influence Ruth had was sergeant John Van Hoy. He pushed her to be better than she was and put her in a new group that helped her improve her leadership skills. “He also allowed me to attend special events within the community and always supported my mission of becoming Trooper of the Year,” she said. She believes without his support and experiences, none of her success would have been possible.
Ruth’s first long term boss was Sergeant Robert Redmond. When Redmond asked Ruth what her goals were, she told him she wanted to become Trooper of the Year at the Leonardtown Barrack, which would make her the first female to win that award at the barrack level in over 20 years.
In 2015, Ruth led the Field Operations Bureau in criminal arrests with 72. She also tallied 1,435 traffic stops along with 859 citations and 477 safety equipment repair orders. Ruth has also been credited with talking a suicidal woman out of possibly hurting herself.
After years of hard work and tough competition, Ruth became the first woman in the history of the organization to be named the Maryland State Trooper of the Year. She says her family and community are proud and have supported her in many ways throughout her journey.