Public Safety outlines State Patrol headquarters request, recruitment needs, and safety‑focused policy proposals

Deputy Commissioner Cassandra O’Hearn told the House Transportation Committee that the governor’s budget recommends several transportation‑related items housed at the Department of Public Safety (DPS), including a trunk‑highway funded request to construct a consolidated State Patrol metropolitan headquarters, funding for recruitment and hiring, and multiple Driver and Vehicle Services (DVS) administrative and regulatory changes.

Why it matters: the request would use trunk‑highway fund dollars for a State Patrol capital project (the department notes the Patrol’s mission to patrol highways and its existing trunk‑highway funding), seeks new capacity to recruit troopers as retirements grow, and proposes statutory and administrative changes intended to improve traffic safety and improve DVS operations.

DPS highlighted the following proposals:

- State Patrol metropolitan headquarters: DPS officials said the governor’s package includes about $48.0 million from trunk highway to build a consolidated metro headquarters that would bring multiple leased sites together, meet evidence‑storage accreditation standards and improve operational coordination. The department said prior appropriations funded property purchase and predesign; the new request would fund construction and fit‑out.

- Recruitment and hiring: DPS said the State Patrol has 91 trooper vacancies and an academy class of 42 underway; the department expects about 100 troopers to be eligible for retirement over the next four years. The budget requests $1.0 million in FY26 and FY27 for recruitment and marketing to support more frequent academies and broader recruiting outreach.

- Excessive speed penalty change: DPS noted a policy proposal to require a six‑month license revocation for drivers traveling at speeds that exceed the posted limit by 35 miles per hour (the current statute requires a six‑month revocation for speeds of 100 mph or more). DPS framed the change as a tool to reduce traffic fatalities and address very high speeds regardless of posted limits.

- Office of Traffic Safety match: the department seeks roughly $485,000 in trunk‑highway funds each year to provide the state match that unlocks federal Office of Traffic Safety grants (the federal programs generally require a 50 percent match).

- Driver and Vehicle Services items: DPS presented multiple DVS requests, including authority to pay service providers for currently no‑fee transactions (estimated at about $2.1 million), rulemaking authority and resources for the ignition interlock device program required by 2021 legislation, online driver’s license renewal expansion (estimated to generate about $2.74 million in revenue), lengthening the commercial learner’s permit from six months to one year to align with federal rules, and a proposal to require plate replacement at vehicle title transfer to prevent old plates from remaining associated with sellers.

Committee members asked several questions about trunk‑highway funding for a non‑road capital project and about the recruitment outlook. Representative Roger Scraba expressed concern about using trunk‑highway dollars for a headquarters and Representative Olson pressed DPS staff on why trunk‑highway funds — intended for roads — should fund the building; DPS staff responded that State Patrol operations are funded from trunk‑highway because the Patrol’s core mission is highway patrol.

No formal votes were taken; DPS staff said the department will return for further committee discussions and provide additional details on specific proposals (including cost breakdowns and timelines) as the budget process continues.

Ending: Committee members asked DPS to provide deeper cost detail and follow‑up on trooper retirement projections and the ignition interlock rulemaking plan; the department said it would follow up in subsequent hearings.