1st Sgt. Mueller new SCHP commander
By TIM GULLA Ledger Staff Writer tim@gaffneyledger.com

Mueller

The local South Carolina Highway Patrol post serving Cherokee and Union counties has a new commander with a familiar face at the helm.

Steve Mueller, who has spent his entire 18-year career with the Highway Patrol serving local residents, has been promoted to First Sergeant of Troop 4's Post A.

"When I came here in 1990," he said, "it didn't take long to realize this was a good place to live and work."

And in taking over as the commander of Post A, he said, "I have basically inherited some of the best troopers in the state in Cherokee and Union counties. The men I'll be supervising do a great job each and every day."

After graduating from the South Carolina Highway Patrol Academy at the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy in Columbia, Mueller began working as a trooper in November 1990. He was promoted to corporal in 1999 and sergeant in 2003.

His promotion to first sergeant was effective May 2. He replaces First Sgt. D.B. Linehan as commander of Post A.

Linehan was promoted to Lieutenant on March 20 and went to Troop 4 Headquarters in Chester.

As post commander, Mueller is responsible for administrative operations and overseeing scheduling and staffing.

Among those responsibilities is reviewing accident data so the post can continually adjust resources where they make the biggest impact, such as by putting its officers on the roadways where the highest numbers of collisions occur.

Among his goals as the new post commander, he said, is to form more partnerships with local police agencies in Cherokee and Union counties to reduce the number of traffic fatalities on the region's roadways.

Mueller said his new position is something he had been striving for in his career.

"I love working with the Patrol," he said. "You have to have a desire to help people and make a difference in the community you live in and the Patrol gives you that opportunity."

Mueller is married to the former Shannon Sprouse of Gaffney and they have a 5- year-old son, Braden.