Annual OHP academies would make a difference

THE Oklahoma Highway Patrol has 29 new troopers, the result of their completing an academy that should be held every year but which has become anything but an annual occurrence. At some point, the roller coaster needs to stop.

The academy was the OHP’s 65th. But the 64th didn’t come in 2017 — no academy was held last year due to an 11 percent reduction in funding from the Legislature. Indeed, it appeared highly unlikely the 2018 academy would be held, until the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority said it would pay to cover its costs (and the salaries and benefits for the cadets’ first year as troopers).

The turnpike authority contracts with the OHP for troopers who patrol the state’s toll roads, paying for their cruisers, fuel and equipment. The two agencies have long enjoyed a solid relationship.

But the assistance shouldn’t have been necessary. The Department of Public Safety should be funded in a way that allows it to conduct its academy every year. Instead, even after a bump in the DPS appropriation for next year, there is no guarantee the 66th Patrol Academy will be held in 2019.

Before the 2017 academy was put on ice, the DPS was able to fund five straight years of academies. That five-year stretch helped the patrol build back some of the manpower it had lost due to three consecutive years without an academy.

DPS Commissioner Rusty Rhoades, who was appointed to the post in late 2017, says he would like to see the ranks of the OHP at 950. Instead, the 29 newest members place the total at 799 — and roughly one-fourth of the roster is retirement eligible at any given time.

The Highway Patrol has a big job — it’s responsible for patrolling about 112,000 miles of roadway, plus 4,000 miles of shoreline on state lakes. Yet tight budgets in recent years led to cost-saving moves such as limiting troopers to traveling no more than 100 miles per day, reducing OHP aircraft flying hours and using fewer dispatchers during overnight shifts.

Rhoades says his agency is in better shape after receiving a fiscal year 2019 appropriation of $97.6 million. That’s an increase of about $2.8 million over the current fiscal year.

A 27-year veteran of the agency, Rhoades says there has been considerable trust between the Legislature and the DPS, and he wants to build on that by providing lawmakers with a clear outline of his vision for DPS.

“It’s been business as usual to go back and say, ‘We have a need, trust us, we need this much money,’” he said. “It’s incumbent on me to take them a plan and say, ‘This is the plan now.’ We’ve never done that.”

That’s a solid strategy. For their part, lawmakers must do all they can to ensure the DPS has the funding needed to ensure it can do its job — and that includes holding its trooper academies each year. The agency shouldn’t have to rely on the kindness of others to help fulfill what is a core government service — public safety.