‘We see their struggles’

Trooper Tracy Lillard understands that truckers just want to get home safe, like everyone else.

Known as Trooper Tracy on Facebook, Lillard has been in law enforcement for about 20 years and has been in control of the Illinois State Police social media pages for the past few.

She comes to that task with a unique perspective.

Her father is a farmer and has been trucking his whole life.

With one foot in the trucking world, and another in law enforcement, Trooper Tracy is speaking out for – and speaking out on behalf of – both communities.

Most of that outreach comes by way of her own professional Facebook page that has more than 60,000 followers. There, she often writes about her respect for truckers.

Most of the stories are about interactions she’s had – or things she’s seen.

The goal, Trooper Tracy says, is to educate, to open eyes and ultimately to keep everyone safe out on the roads.

An Oct. 8, 2019, entry on her Facebook page particularly hit home with truck drivers.

The post resonated, generating more than 4,000 views, nearly 500 shares and about 200 comments.

“We see their struggles,” Lillard said. “We see the issues with lane usage and people tailgating the semis and people trying to pass them on the shoulder. We see that. We want them to know we see that, and that we’re trying to address that as well. Lots of these truck drivers have millions of miles under their belt, and a traffic crash by somebody who is being irresponsible and cutting semis off can ruin that for them. We see that, and we want the trucking community to know that we as police officers appreciate their service … especially in bad weather and heavy rain.”

Lillard said that the focus has often been on what truck drivers do wrong, so she takes time to contact trucking companies to inform them when she sees their drivers operating safely.

One post that went viral involved Lillard reaching out to thank a trucker for attempting to keep the highway safe.

“I did make a conscious decision to highlight what’s being done right,” she said. “I have specifically looked for the good in what people are doing right and contacted their trucking companies.”

Lillard also wants to educate four-wheel drivers on how to safely share the road with 18-wheelers.

Listen to Trooper Tracy Lillard on Land Line Now.

“When they tell me what needs to be relayed to the motoring public, I can then share that,” she said. “It can be something as simple as lane usage and blind spots. We expect everybody to learn this in driver’s ed, but so many people don’t understand how to safely share the road with others.”

Another goal of Lillard’s is to let truckers know that she knows law enforcement and truck drivers both want to keep the highways safe.

“I think that relationship that I’ve built on social media, people really see what we’re doing on a daily basis. We’re not out there to write tickets every day. We’re not out there to ruin your day,” she said. “We’re out there to make the roads safe and handle crashes, and help people stranded on the side of the highway.

“I think humanizing what we do every day has been helped by social media. In that, I think a lot of truckers have started following these pages and I think they understand a little bit more about what we do for a living. They drive for a living. We drive for a living. We share the same interstates every day. We work together.” LL