JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — If you get in an accident on the highway, a Florida Highway Patrol Trooper is more than likely going to be first on the scene, and right now, the agency is better staffed than it has been in years.
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Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Executive Director Dave Kerner told Action News Jax recent salary increases and a pro-law enforcement environment in the Sunshine State has the agency experiencing some of the lowest trooper vacancy rates it has ever seen.
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There are roughly 100 vacancies statewide and nearly 1,900 troopers currently on payroll.
“Right now, we’re about four to five percent. So, we’re certainly not on a hiring freeze, we’re just in a very unique and really exciting position to be in, which is we just don’t have a whole lot of more positions to be filled,” said Kerner.
Currently, the agency doesn’t plan to hold another recruitment class until June of next year.
But Kerner noted 42 new troopers are scheduled to graduate from the academy in August.
He said if a need arises earlier, the agency could schedule more classes.
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But he added there’s also a backlog of former troopers looking to rejoin the agency, which would be the first place FHP would look.
“We have a cadre of applicants that would not need to go through the FHP academy and we could hire them back and put them immediately into FTO and back on the road,” said Kerner.
Additionally, Kerner says the agency’s attrition rate has been cut in half over the past two years, which means fewer troopers are departing the agency each year.
Kerner added thanks to the high staffing rates, the agency is able to help with missions on the southern boarder and Florida’s southern coasts.
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Currently the agency is providing a combined 63 troopers to aid in those efforts.
He noted additional costs incurred on those operations are covered by the Governor’s discretionary emergency fund, not the agency itself.
“Troopers oftentimes volunteer to go to the boarder and they oftentimes volunteer to work several rotations and so we make sure to spread out our deployments in a way that doesn’t impact the road coverage or the investigative priorities of the agency,” said Kerner.
Kerner told Action News Jax if the need arises, the agency will post additional recruitment class dates on its website.
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Starting salaries are set at $52,500 a year, but are closer to $60,000 in some pricier parts of the state, including at least five Northeast Florida counties.
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