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Editorial
The Florida Highway Patrol, one of the State’s most essential components, is facing severe circumstances. Rather than watch the situation continue to get worse, I’ll try to suggest how it can be turned around. My role as a volunteer advisor is known and disclosed, but the following comments and proposals are solely my own and are presented as an individual citizen and taxpayer of the State of Florida. The suggestions are designed to be results oriented, affordable, incremental, conservative and effective and to at the very least start a conversation that leads to action and solutions. Additional funding and structural change are required. We need to create a system that corrects and adjusts and prevents the current crisis from ever re-occurring. The can has been kicked down the road for so long that only a flat rusty piece of aluminum remains, and it just cannot be kicked any further.
FHP is in the midst of a staffing and funding crisis that has been developing over many years. Objectively the situation has become critical in that public safety is compromised. The facts are rather obvious. The population has grown immensely. The numbers of Florida citizens, visitors, and vehicles on the highways have risen dramatically. The number of highway and state road miles has increased significantly. Criminal activity on the highways, from hazardous driving, to trafficking, to homicide, is raging. In many areas, there were more Troopers on duty ten years ago than there are today.
Mission demands upon Troopers, from Florida’s roadways to international immigration related assignments at the Mexico/Texas border, along Florida’s extensive coastline, and in the Keys have taken an already insufficient number of people and drawn down the number of Troopers available for regular duty.
Troopers are spread so thin as to diminish the safety of the Troopers themselves. That fact alone crosses the line. Most highway miles cannot be patrolled, and response times have risen in many cases to be several hours due to calls overwhelming the number of available Troopers. A hiring freeze is in effect. The Academy class has been canceled and none are slated to happen for at least another year. Despite outstanding professionalism and devotion to public service, FHP is being forced to do much more, with much less, creating circumstances that virtually make public service and safety objectives impossible to attain.
Budget inadequacies also hit all individual Troopers economically – and personally. FHP Troopers are vastly underpaid, at the bottom of national indexes of compensation for State Troopers. The cost of living in Florida has soared but Trooper compensation has essentially lost rather than gained ground. The levels and structure of the system are disincentives to keeping and attracting the best of the best.
So many unfulfilled promises have been made by state officials, and so much disingenuous rhetoric has been tossed, that morale is low and increasing numbers of valuable Troopers are looking to move on to other agencies. Understaffed, with no incoming new Troopers, and upcoming attrition, are factors now combining to exacerbate the urgency of the situation. However, no fixes are on the way. State officials have not called a Special Session. While conditions deteriorate every day, no action is underway and nothing is on the horizon.
This is all as embarrassing and dangerous as it is unnecessary. Florida can afford to do so much better and in reality, cannot afford not to. Our State just enacted a new annual budget of over 116 billion dollars, with a reserve of over 17 billion dollars. No budget effort was made to solve the deep inadequacies of the state’s funding of FHP. A huge flow of money continuously goes through the state capitol, but it has not been tapped one bit to correct this public safety urgency.
New funding mechanisms have been proposed over the years, to help make increased funding for FHP to be budget neutral, but they have not been officially considered. New funding, though, is not really an issue with billions flowing and billions more being put away into “reserves”. With or without any new or additional funding sources, it just cannot be reasonably argued that Florida cannot afford to do what it needs to do. Does anyone in the budget process really want to say that there is no waste, no inefficiency, no budget back pockets, and no money available to ramp FHP up now into what Florida needs it to be?
States are increasingly recognizing the need to act and are committing to expansion of their highway patrols (for example, California is adding 1,000 Troopers and Tennessee 300). I am not aware of any reason that could possibly justify Florida doing the opposite of the right thing here.
In light of the fact that there are a number of detailed suggestions being made by others for certain specific pay adjustments, the recommendations here should be viewed as in addition to rather than instead of those other proposals.
State officials should establish new objectives and structural change, with funding officially allocated. One primary goal should be to expand FHP by a minimum number of 100-150 Troopers per year for the next 5 years. Future demands upon FHP will undoubtedly and continuously increase, so prudent action would be to far exceed those minimum objectives.
The State should enact a multi-year budget plan for Trooper compensation that includes the following. In year one, increase all FHP salaries (including all sworn, unsworn, and the entire team of individuals), with a 15% increase. All positions and ranks. Immediately establish a step pay plan with incremental built-in increases. Immediately recognize an information system showing current compensation rates for Troopers in all states of the nation. In year 2, increase Trooper pay across the board within FHP to become at least equal to or more than the national rank of # 35. In year 3, increase Trooper pay to at least the national rank of # 25.
In all years subsequent to year 3 and continuing forward as part of structural change, the State budget shall adjust every two years semi-automatically to maintain Trooper pay at least at the mark of # 25 nationally, subject only to specific determination by the legislature and governor for certified reasons of State financial inability to comply in that particular year. In each budget year, allotments for civilian support staff, equipment, supplies, and facilities must keep pace with the additional sworn personnel.
Nothing in the law would or could cause deficit scenarios, and nothing shall inhibit the legislature and governor from exceeding these minimal targets and making FHP the top compensated, equipped, trained, and performing Highway Patrol in America.
Public safety on Florida’s highways and having a sufficiently staffed and paid organization of FHP Troopers, must become a priority – and a success story. Imagine the consequences of continued ignorance of the need to totally turn this situation around. This is shared here to facilitate awareness, to invite feedback, and to encourage everyone to work together to forge and implement the necessary changes without further delay.
PAUL D. NOVACK, Esq.
Paul D. Novack is an Attorney at Law specializing in civil litigation and in public service. He is a former (6 term) Mayor of the Town of Surfside, is the Leader of a Cold Case Investigation Team successfully tackling Florida’s oldest organized crime murder cases, and he is a member of the Florida Highway Patrol Advisory Council. Mr. Novack has decades of experience in civil law, criminal investigations, and government. While in law school, Mr. Novack worked as a journalist for Community Newspapers.
