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Opinion Piece
While the Governor and Legislature deal with many issues facing Florida and they tussle over whether or not to call a Special Session of the Legislature this year to address the impact of recently passed condominium laws, there is another situation that also warrants attention long before next year’s regular session eventually makes decisions that would not be implemented until late 2025. Systemic processes need to keep up with urgent needs of the State.
Public safety on Florida’s highways and the status of the Florida Highway Patrol should not wait any longer to be upgraded. Law enforcement and public safety levels throughout most areas of the State have become critical. All highway motorists witness frequent reckless driving and criminal conduct and the lack of law enforcement visibility or response. FHP deserves the support of state officials to ramp up and enable the Patrol to meet the challenges of Florida’s ever expanding and increasingly dangerous highway system.
Highway construction and expansion continues at a strong pace and the numbers of vehicles on them have risen dramatically. Unfortunately, the aspect of highway law enforcement has been relatively ignored. There is no better time than now for state officials to recognize this public safety priority and include it on a fast track to action and results.
Florida has an immense gap between the number of necessary State Troopers and the number of available Troopers. Despite dedicated and often heroic efforts of members of the Florida Highway Patrol, current resources cannot keep up with the ever-increasing threats to public safety. Criminal activity on the highways from hazardous driving to homicide is raging. Added mission demands continue to be cast upon FHP without the provision of added personnel or funding. Assignments for spring break, campus protests, house of worship protection, and deployment to the Mexico/Texas border all take Troopers off the highways.
Visibility and deterrence are almost non-existent in many places. During 2024, FHP has had a hiring freeze imposed and an academy class canceled. Attrition exceeds new hires and despite much higher needs for Troopers, nothing is yet happening to produce the substantial increase in staffing and budget that could be reasonably expected to yield results and reverse the trend. Florida’s drivers and passengers, residents and visitors alike, need a leap forward, not baby steps or continued regression.
Needless accidents, deaths, and mayhem must be avoided. Florida is now operating with an annual budget of over $116 billion. State cash reserves recently received an input of an additional $17 billion. Highway expansion is booming and is being funded with an additional $15 billion of public money. FHP could become vastly more effective with an extraordinarily small fraction of the money flowing from and into our highways. There is a path forward that would make a huge, prompt, and painless positive difference.
FHP should be expanded by at least 100 Troopers per year for the next 5 years as a minimum objective. Troopers should be paid better to encourage longevity of service and to stop attrition of Troopers moving over to much better paid law enforcement agencies. Our State Troopers have been amongst the very lowest compensated in the entire nation for many years, an unnecessary embarrassment for Florida.
Legislators should prioritize fixing this, changing the structure and obtaining long term results. Troopers’ salaries should rise by 15% in year one. A step plan should be established to encourage longevity of service. Parity with Trooper compensation in other states should become the rule. In year two, pay should rise to be at least equal to the national rank of # 35. In year three, increase Trooper pay to at least the rank of # 25. Thereafter, funding should adjust every two years to maintain pay at least at the mark of # 25 nationally, subject only to specific determination by the State that actual financial inability prevents compliance in that particular year. This is obviously not an excessive or extravagant goal, and it would help to take partisan politics out of the equation.
This plan can be implemented without any tax increase, fee increase, or toll increase. There are many existing funding sources available.
For just one example, although there are many state toll roads, if a mere 3.5% of tolls collected on the Turnpike alone (over $1.2 billion) was devoted to FHP, it would receive an additional $42 million annually. FHP would be fully funded. Tourists pay much of those tolls. Currently, less than 20% of Turnpike tolls are allocated to highway maintenance and the rest goes towards new highway construction. Billions of dollars exist for all current and planned highway projects, and this miniscule allocation for highway law enforcement would not have any impact on construction.
Florida needs to have a properly funded FHP. At Florida’s capital, the money is there, and it would be needless and dangerous for the State to do anything other than prioritize making a U-Turn and giving FHP the resources it needs to do its vastly expanded job.
Paul Novack is an Attorney at Law, is a former (six term) Mayor of the Town of Surfside, is the leader of an Organized Crime Cold Case Homicide Investigation Team, and is a Member of the Florida Highway Patrol Advisory Council.
Opinion Piece
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