May 11, 2018 was a celebratory day for the newest batch of 71 Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) recruits graduating the police academy in Tallahassee. Depending on how you look at it—law-abiding motorist or a speed demon—citizens operating vehicles stand to gain something along the spectrum of safety and citations.
The Florida Highway Patrol Training Academy offers a seven-month police training curriculum equating to a 28-week-long rigorous structure indoctrinating the demanding components of police work. Incidentally, FHP’s training academy requires recruits reside on-campus in the state capitol of Tallahassee for the entire seven-months’ stint.
Yesterday marked the graduation of its 138th Recruit Class. I could practically smell the duty belts’ new leather wafting the swearing-in ceremony hall. The creaky new leather gear signals the launch of something larger than imagination. At least I found this to be quite true throughout my cop career. I still have my duty belt which I view as a sort of ribbon-wrap around a journal, running the gamut of crossing children at school-area streets to staring at abyssal eyes of suicides.
What is the ending for some is the beginning for others.
Of course, what is a swearing-in event for police recruits without conferring inherent authority via iconic shiny badges pinned on by a loved one, dignitary or academy classmate? Law enforcement badges come in various shapes and sizes, but the symbolism is the same throughout the United States: Law and order.
FHP’s badge is rather round, sort of complimenting its shoulder patch depicting an orange. As seen in the above cover photograph, these tins attach to khaki uniforms filled by troopers patrolling in “black and tans”—slang for a Florida trooper’s two-toned police cruiser. Yet none of this is credible without the physical training and legal prowess to cater to citizens’ needs.
Primarily traffic-oriented, state troopers are often viewed as limited to their jurisdiction’s roadway system and endemic vehicular woes: traffic crashes, speed enforcement, tire-changing, and all manner of safety defaults for users of the asphalt. But that does not mean troopers are curtailed to only automobile-related statutes and traffic stuff. Conducting traffic stops often engenders “rolling DVs” (domestic violence/disputes in cars), delivering babies for parents speeding to the hospital, and interdiction operations to nab drug traffickers.
As with any other law enforcement recruit at any police training academy, the breadth of what is required for effective policing is taught in curriculum mandated by the state Criminal Justice and Training Standards Commission (CJSTC) or Police Officer Standards and Training (POST). Other than respective state statutes, most states mimic each other in terms of physical training and police tactical dynamics. A cop in Butte, Montana and another in Slidell, Louisiana are largely going to be on the same police page in terms of tactics, strategies and physicality. Jurisdictional scope is one exception stemming from state, county or municipal domain. Some police agencies have a larger field of operations while others have a small pocket to maintain.
Salary disparity among state police agencies can often astound, and Florida has been sweating out the heat of dismal trooper pay while clawing their way to paying better so as to stabilize trooper ranks and close the exodus doors from which their state police warriors flee to better-paying smaller agencies.
Florida’s Road to Reparations
As a state law enforcement agency, FHP has seen its trooper numbers dwindle in recent years. One major hit stemmed from salary disparity. Florida troopers were known for being undercompensated even though they are a faction under state government. Historically, media entities throughout the state reported on the dismal salaries resulting in troopers being hired by other non-state police agencies paying more.
As far back as 1996, the opening paragraph in a Sun-Sentinel article read “State lawmakers should stop ducking their duty to beef up the grossly understaffed Florida Highway Patrol so it can do the job it was assigned to do and boost inadequate FHP salaries to reduce unnecessary job turnover.” As Tampa Bay Times reporter Jeremy Wallace stated, “Fewer troopers create more dangerous roads.” That recipe for disaster applies to any law enforcement agency of any size throughout American geography.
Fast-forward to 2017 and the situation seems unimproved over two decades.
The Tampa Bay Times published a succinct Opinion article titled “Florida troopers need more money” which explored the self-evident point of undercompensated state troopers endeavoring to meet the Sunshine State’s always-burgeoning population.
Reported here on OpsLens, the state reacted to negative publicity pertaining to underpaid and overworked troopers trying to meet citizens’ calls for service. Waiting times were reportedly several hours for a trooper to respond to traffic crash investigations; I can attest to that.
Outgoing Governor Rick Scott (R) has often been heralded as a staunch supporter of law enforcement officers. As we enter National Police Week 2018, Governor Scott has been busy traversing Florida attending the myriad law enforcement memorials held by local agencies. That’s all well and good; it is a respected ritual and an honorable gesture. However, a thinking mind has to wonder what attention and effort he has placed in our subject matter (enhancing state troopers’ sustenance) since he was jeered by non-Florida cops who felt he neglected his own state’s troopers while trying to poach businesses to relocate within Florida borders.
On June 22, 2017 I wrote the following which was published by OpsLens: “Abuzz in the news lately has been persistent negative press publicizing FHP at the lowest rung of state trooper salaries. Troopers with the Florida Highway Patrol start their careers at a meager $33,977. After 30 years, and at the time of his line-of-duty death, Master Sergeant Bishop topped-out at $61,192, according to a report published by WTNH.com. Although FHP’s recruitment bulletin contains some pay variation depending upon what county troopers are assigned, generally it is around $34,000 supplemented by some benefits.”
To distill the aforementioned to numerical context, the 30-year FHP trooper maxed his salary at $$61,192 while Texas Department of Public Safety troopers were starting their careers with a salary of $$73,000.
The Florida trooper to whom I am referring is (was) FHP Master Sergeant William Trampas Bishop, a 30-year veteran with the state patrol, who was killed on Interstate 75 while investigating a traffic crash on June 17, 2017.
Jeremy Wallace wrote that “Mark Puckett, executive director of the Florida Police Benevolent Association, recommended in January [2017] that the state boost starting salaries up $10,000. That may be the right approach, and the Legislature should continue to provide significant annual pay increases for state troopers who are paid so little to do so much. That would help reduce turnover rates, fill vacancies and get Florida’s state troopers the pay they deserve.”
Although it is not nearly what Mr. Puckett recommended, Governor Scott announced a 5-percent pay increase in June 2017. According to the Florida Highway Patrol bulletin, “state law enforcement agencies [to include FHP] will receive a five-percent pay increase, bumping the starting pay for a rookie state trooper to just over $36,000 annually.”
Whether the Florida Legislature sees the disparity and puts even more money where its troopers’ mouths are remains a work-in-progress. Borrowing sentiments via the voice of Times reporter Wallace, “The nation’s third-largest state [by populace] can do better.” Despite any inroads or remaining shortfalls, at least 71 new troopers are hitting the streets this Mother’s day weekend…at a commensurate pay rate definably short in comparison to other state patrol operations.
As former FHP director Colonel Tom Knight told the Associated Press in May of 2017, “It’s not the fault of the highway patrol,” pointing out that the Florida Legislature seems to have disregarded caring for FHP. Over the last eight years, 983 of FHP’s authorized strength of almost 2000 state troopers departed for greener pastures. Notwithstanding graduating a batch of troopers here and there, the deficit looms large and lopsided. Yesterday’s 71 academy graduates seems like a small cork attempting to shore-up a dam’s big leak.
