Arizona Department of Public Safety
| Arizona Department of Public Safety | |
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| Common name | Arizona Highway Patrol |
| Abbreviation | DPS |
Patch of the Arizona Department of Public Safety
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Badge of an Arizona Department of Public Safety Trooper
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| Motto | "Courteous Vigilance" |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | July 1, 1969 |
| Employees | 2,005 (as of 2004) |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | State of Arizona, U.S. |
| Size | 295,254 square kilometres 113,998 square miles |
| Population | 6,338,755 (2007 est.) |
| Legal jurisdiction | Arizona |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | 2102 West Encanto Boulevard, Phoenix, Arizona 85009, USA |
| Troopers | 1249 (as of 2016) |
| Civilians | 880 (as of 2004) |
| Agency executives |
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| Districts | 12 |
| Website | |
| http://www.azdps.gov/ | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) is an American law enforcement agency with its usual focus being protection of all Arizona highways. The Director is Frank L. Milstead, who began his 4-year term in February 2015. Its headquarters are in Phoenix.
Following legislation in 1968, the Arizona Department of Public Safety was established by the executive order of Arizona Governor Jack Williams on July 1, 1969. This order amalgamated the functions and responsibilities of the Arizona Highway Patrol, the Law Enforcement Division of the state Department of Liquor Licenses and Control and the Narcotics Division of the state Department of Law.
In its 30-plus years of service, the department has become an organization dedicated to protecting and providing state-level law enforcement services to the public and developing partnerships with agencies sharing similar missions.
The department consists of four divisions - Highway Patrol, Criminal Investigations, Technical Services, Agency Support. Together these four divisions provide scientific, technical, operational and regulatory services to Arizona residents and to the state's criminal justice community; one of the more famous subdivisions of the Criminal Investigations Division is the Gang and Immigration Intelligence Team Enforcement Mission task force (better known as "GIITEM"), which was formed to combat the growing gang infestation problems mainly in Maricopa County (the Phoenix area), even though their jurisdiction is (like the AZ/HP) statewide.
In 2011, the Arizona State Capitol Police department was merged with DPS, alongside the Highway Patrol Division. ASCP was responsible for the State Capitol Mall in Phoenix, and the Tucson State Complex. Today the Capitol Police still exist and patrol the Capitol grounds, but they are now full DPS officers and use DPS cars, logos and uniforms. Capitol police officers wear special Capitol Police patches on their uniforms.
For much of its history, the sworn members of the department were known as officers or patrolmen. In early 2015, a change in title was initiated at the agency that resulted in its sworn personnel becoming known as State Troopers. The change in title from patrolmen and officer to State Trooper served to better align the department with other highway patrol agencies across the country.
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Wikipedia