A mainstay of the Indiana State Police Lowell Post has retired.  Detective Sergeant Richard (Rick) Strong has retired after 25 years of service as an Indiana State Trooper.

Lieutenant Al Williamson, Area I Investigative Commander, said, “Sergeant Strong will be missed by all of us, not only in Investigations, but also by Enforcement.  His work ethic and caring about those he supervised is to be commended.  It was an honor to serve our citizens with Rick”. 

Rick is a native of Logansport, IN, graduating from Logansport High School in 1983.  After attending an ISP Career Camp at Indiana State University, he decided to attend college there, majoring in Criminology.  After graduation from ISU, he enlisted in the United States Air Force and served from 1987 to 1991 and was stationed at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.

Strong was selected to attend the 53^rd Indiana State Police Recruit Academy which he completed in 1995.  His first and only assignment was to the Lowell Post and he spent his entire career at Lowell.  While at Lowell, he was assigned to Zone 5 which was Jasper and Newton Counties.  He also did a temporary assignment to the Indiana Gaming Commission and was assigned to a casino.  Rick stated, “I enjoyed being a road trooper, but I felt drawn towards investigations.  Talking to people, both victims as well as suspects, seemed to come natural to me.”  In April of 2010, he was promoted to Detective and later that same year he was promoted to Detective Sergeant.  During his career in investigations, Strong has worked all types of investigations from homicides to misdemeanor offenses.  Along the way, Rick was also a crash reconstructionist, EVO instructor, field training officer, and LIDAR/Radar instructor.

Rick and his wife Michelle have one daughter, Tori, who he is extremely proud of.  When asked what he will miss in retirement, he said several things.  “I had a great group of detectives in my squad.  They all worked well together, solving the large portion of investigations they were assigned, and there were some BIG cases along the way.  I will truly miss the work, the in-depth using your brain until exhaustion.  But most of all, I will miss my ISP family that I love deeply.  God has blessed me.  I was an Indiana State Trooper.”