Kansas Highway Patrol outlines reorganization, staffing shortfalls and two legislative initiatives to Senate transportation panel

The Kansas Highway Patrol told the Senate Transportation Committee on Jan. 13 that it has reorganized to consolidate related units under unified leadership, is operating below target sworn staffing levels and will seek two pieces of legislation this session to address traffic safety and program funding.

Merle Riedel, executive officer for the Kansas Highway Patrol, told senators the patrol consolidated protective services, investigative and administrative functions into bureaus to improve coordination and emphasized ongoing staffing and recruitment challenges. "Currently staffing levels permit one to two troopers per zone, which is not optimal," Riedel said, describing zones that in some cases require a small number of troopers to cover multiple counties.

The reorganization grouped the Capitol Police, executive protection and homeland security functions under a Protective Services Bureau. Riedel said the Investigative Operations Bureau now includes a newly created Troop O, a felony investigation unit that handles investigations initiated by the patrol and prepares prosecution packets for submission to local prosecutors. He also described the Critical Highway Accident Response Team (CHART) for fatal-collision reconstruction and a VIN inspection program that, Riedel said, conducted more than 161,000 inspections and recovered 205 stolen vehicles in fiscal year 2024.

Riedel gave specific staffing and personnel figures. As of Jan. 13, 2025, he said the agency employed 781 people, including 466 sworn officers (of which 427 are troopers), 33 law-enforcement officers in the Capitol Police and six law-enforcement officers in the motor-carrier inspection program. He said the patrol is down 67 sworn positions from a target of 533. The agency reported 296 civilian staff positions with 32 current civilian vacancies.

Riedel credited 2024 salary adjustments for showing early signs of improvement: "After six months of implementation in FY 2025, we are seeing positive trends with these adjustments. We are seeing an increase of 7 sworn officers and an increase of 8 dispatchers when we compare the numbers to at this point last year," he said. He described other changes intended to improve recruitment and retention, including a condensed academy for experienced officers, a new aptitude test and use of a third-party background-investigation platform.

Senators asked how enforcement would work on a planned tolled expansion of U.S. Highway 69 in Johnson County. Riedel said tolling and certain maintenance tasks are under the Kansas Turnpike authority, but collisions and criminal investigations on that corridor continue to be the responsibility of the local jurisdiction and the Kansas Highway Patrol will continue to provide routine patrols and support. "If they run up on an accident or a crash or witness any kind of violations, they'll still enforce that stuff," he said.

Riedel described two legislative initiatives the patrol intends to seek this session. First, the patrol will propose clarifying the statutory definition of reckless driving so that traveling 100 miles per hour or more, or traveling 30–35 miles per hour over the posted limit, would be defined as reckless driving; Riedel said this change would not alter existing penalties but would clarify when the statute applies. Second, the patrol plans to seek an amendment to require ignition interlock device manufacturers to pay a fee to cover administration, inspection and program oversight costs, generating revenue to offset appropriated state funds.

Committee members asked clarifying questions about minimum applicant ages, education and citizenship requirements to enter the patrol academy; Riedel said applicants must be at least 21 years old and U.S. citizens, and also must pass written and physical tests, a polygraph and a background investigation. He described a recruiting pipeline in which 29 graduates were produced from a pool of 378 applicants in 2023 (about an 8% completion rate), and noted that many applicants are lost early in the screening process.

The patrol also described services it provides to local agencies statewide — including aviation support, canine detection, hazardous-device and crash-reconstruction assistance — noting these capabilities are difficult for small rural agencies to maintain on their own.

Riedel closed by saying the patrol appreciates the legislature's recent compensation changes and will pursue the two legislative initiatives with the committee. The committee had no immediate votes on the proposals during the presentation.