State Highway Patrol to add 180 troopers
New cadets would raise staffing by 17% as budget crunch eases.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol is hoping to find 180 qualified cadets to fill two upcoming training academy classes, a significant recruiting surge that signals new stability for the patrol’s once-fluctuating budget, officials said.
The academy, dormant for 18 months without funding, graduated a class in February. It is training a class on its Columbus campus and hopes to fill two more in the near future.
The 180 cadets would represent 17.2 percent of the 2011 trooper level of 1,043, according to highway patrol data. The patrol is losing an average of 4.8 troopers per month to attrition, said spokeswoman Lt. Anne Ralston.
“We’re being aggressive in our recruitment, which can be a challenge.”
Lt. Anne Ralston, State Highway Patrol spokeswoman
In order to afford the training sessions, the patrol cut costs while managing a budget that changed its major funding source from gas taxes to license and registration fees.
While instituting costcutting measures such as operating cruisers longer, decreasing fuel consumption and minimizing office costs, the patrol carved out enough funds in its budget of about $306 million to actively recruit future troopers, gaining momentum with public events and grassroots campaigns.
Entry-level troopers earn nearly $50,000 per year. Because not every cadet finishes the academy, it’s not clear how many troopers will be added to the patrol or where they will be assigned, Ralston said. “We’re being aggressive in our recruitment, which can be a challenge,” she said.
Cadets must meet a list of requirements including age, education and physical performance specifications. Upon graduation, they will begin traffic enforcement jobs while filling in slots that have been lost to attrition for a patrol that includes more than 80 posts in 10 districts. The patrol made 1.4 million stops with 21,426 arrests or summonses last year.
“This is very welcome,” said Sgt. Jake Pyles of the highway patrol’s Xenia post. “We’ve been short for such a long time, it’s nice for the troopers to be working alongside somebody when we have enough manpower.”
Finding funds
In 2004, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft began the process of decreasing the highway patrol’s reliance on gas tax funds for its budget. In the ensuing years, from 2004 to 2010, gas taxes filtered to the patrol dropped from $140.1 million to $16.2 million.
The state convened the Ohio State Highway Patrol Funding Task Force in 2007 to provide recommendations for changing to another sustained funding source. “The Patrol’s budget challenges associated with the phase out of the motor vehicle fuel tax have been clearly documented,” the task force wrote in its 2008 report.
It recommended shifting the major patrol funding source to license and registration fees. In analyzing Ohio’s state budgets for fiscal years 2012 and 2013, the Legislative Service Commission noted that the state enacted or changed nine license or registration fees to help fund the highway patrol, including a new $20 late fee for vehicle registration or driver license renewal.
The highway patrol comprises nearly half — 46.8 percent — of the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s budget.
While struggling to set a stable funding source and cut other expenses, the academy sat idle. The patrol graduated its 148th academy class in December 2007 but did not graduate its next class until December 2009. It then trained classes that graduated in April 2011 and February 2012. Its current class will finish in August.
“We’ve always done ongoing recruiting, but in that time period when we knew we weren’t going to have classes, we weren’t actively recruiting,” Ralston said. “However, when we did have the budget, and we were able to run another academy, we really geared it up again.”
Trooper training
As 2012 began, with academy funds again in the budget, the state patrol reignited its recruiting efforts. To qualify for the academy’s full-time, 22-week training program, an applicant must at minimum be a U.S. citizen, a resident of Ohio, age 2034, have a valid driver’s license and hold a high school diploma or GED (more information can be found on the highway patrol’s website at http:// statepatrol.ohio.gov).
Some of the new troopers likely would help the state’s recently announced effort to boost staff levels at posts near Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus to combat dangerous driving. The day-long, yearround patrols will run from Hamilton, Cuyahoga and Franklin counties.
Recently injected with two February academy graduates, the patrol’s Xenia post is back to 14 troopers. Realistically, Pyles said the post would like to have four troopers on each of its three shifts that patrol Greene County.
“With more (troopers), we would be able to respond faster to calls for assistance or about reckless drivers,” Pyles said. “It’s not just about having more bodies, it’s about how that helps the public.”