About FHP

The Florida Highway Patrol was established in 1939 when then Governor Fred P. Cone, member of the Executive Board of the Department of Public Safety, made a motion to establish the Florida Highway Patrol. Under the direction of Director Reid and (then) Captain Kirkman, the first training academy was held in Bradenton with 40 students. This class graduated 32 members and by the end of 1940 (the first full year of operation), FHP had 59 patrolmen. In that first year, they patrolled 1,938,564 miles of roadway and investigated 1,000 crashes. Today we patrol over 43,200,000 miles and investigate over 176,000 crashes annually. Florida had less than two million residents in 1939, while today we have over 21.5 million. Additionally, Florida has an estimated 137 million visitors to our state each year.

The FHP strives to achieve our core values of courtesy, service and protection. It is our job to help ensure the safety and welfare of millions of Florida’s residents and visitors each day.
The Florida Highway Patrol is authorized for 1,982 sworn positions and 503 non-sworn positions for a total of 2,485 full time employees. The majority of those sworn positions are assigned to Patrol Operations.

In addition to Patrol Operations, the Florida Highway Patrol has many specialized areas. The Office of Commercial Vehicle Enforcement conducts data driven enforcement and educational programs to improve the safety of commercial motor vehicles. The Criminal Interdiction Unit consists of specially trained troopers that are strategically assigned throughout the state in order to interdict criminal activity. The Bureau of Criminal Investigations and Intelligence includes specific programmatic areas related to organized crime, terrorism, domestic security, gangs, criminal interdiction, dignitary protection, critical infrastructure protection, and biometric recognition and analysis. Additional specialized areas include recruitment, public affairs, honor guard, aviation, and more.