ELKRIDGE, Md. — Say the year was 1962. You were speeding through Chestertown and you were pulled over by this trooper.
Consider it your badge of honor.
In fact, you wanted to speed again just to have another great conversation. Not a great decision, on your part to break the law, but a great decision by Captain Milton Taylor to become the law at the age of 24.
If you’re going to be the first, you might as well be the best.
Lt. Col Stewart Russell said, “like Jackie Robinson, we picked the right man for the right job and he helped the rest of us.”
And Milton from Elkridge was the right man in the right place at the right time when he saw a patrol car pass him by and thought that would be a good job.
He joined the ranks as a trooper in 1957 and ended up being promoted to Captain while touching every corner of the state.
He also touched the lives of those he didn’t even know…not yet.
Even his own daughter didn’t realize her own father's fame until one day, she asked him to pick her up from Poly because she wasn’t feeling well.
“He got out of the car with that big Stetson hat and all my friends just disappeared,” said Lisette Taylor.
In 25 years, Captain Taylor never fired his gun, never got rattled or upset.
And a room shows medal after medal, and trophy after trophy about the great work he did for Maryland.
Lisette asked, “Dad when you served a warrant was there any trouble? "No, you don’t have a problem if you treat one with respect.”
That philosophy went south all the way to southern Maryland to the first African American police officer with the town of Pocomoke.
Trooper First Class Tykeshia Johnson joined the force after watching the town fall in love with her grandfather. Two men, two forces.
If you’re the first, you might as well be the best.
