Why is there a hold on hiring at the Florida Highway Patrol?

ORLANDO, Fla. — If you have ever waited for a Florida Highway Patrol trooper to show up after an accident, you know it can be a bit of a wait.

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That’s because here in central Florida troopers are busy patrolling over 43,200,000 miles in the state and investigating over 176,000 crashes a year.

9 Investigates just learned that we aren’t expecting anymore troopers to hit Central Florida streets for at least a year.

FHP isn’t calling it a hiring freeze, but that is essentially what it is.

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All you have to do is apply to be a trooper and the website tells you that there are no recruitment classes until June of 2025.

The question is why? The answer isn’t totally clear, the agency only told 9 Investigated that it has a historically low vacancy rate.

But what we do know is that freezes in hiring usually come when agencies are trying to tighten a budget and Florida doesn’t get their new budget until July.

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The Florida Highway Patrol has about 102 vacancies statewide. Those numbers look better than they have in years.

But the question is how many of the 1880 troopers in the state are currently on the roads?

The governor continues to use our state law enforcement to help with the influx of migrants in Texas.

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Currently, there are 50 troopers assigned to Operation Lonestar in Texas, and 13 assigned to Operation Vigilant Sentry in The Keys.

The governor sent troopers just this February to Texas, and speaking at an event in Pensacola said, “This is part of a year’s long effort to help do what the federal government is refusing to do.”

The state has repeatedly dogged email after email from 9 Investigates asking how much it has cost the state to send our law enforcement to the Lone Star State.

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