Texas Department of Public Safety
| Texas Department of Public Safety | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | TX DPS |
Logo of the Texas Department of Public Safety
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| Motto | Courtesy, Service, Protection |
| Agency overview | |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | State of Texas, USA |
| Size | 261,797 square miles (678,050 km2) |
| Population | 26,448,193 (2013 est) |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | Austin, Texas |
| Agency executives |
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| Website | |
| Texas DPS website | |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) is a department of the government of the state of Texas. DPS is responsible for statewide law enforcement and vehicle regulation. The Public Safety Commission oversees DPS. However, under state law, the Governor of Texas may assume personal command of the department during a public disaster, riot, insurrection, or formation of a dangerous resistance to enforcement of law, or to perform his constitutional duty to enforce law. The commission's five members are appointed by the governed and confirmed by the Texas Senate, to serve without pay for staggered, six-year terms. The commission formulates plans and policies for enforcing criminal, traffic and safety laws, for preventing and detecting crime, for apprehending law violators and for educating citizens about laws and public safety. The DPS director and assistant director report to the commission. The director's staff includes the Director,Steven McCraw who holds the rank of colonel, and Deputy Director David Baker, who holds the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The agency is headquartered at 5805 North Lamar Boulevard in Austin.
DPS is divided into thirteen divisions:
The Administrative Services Division serves as the indirect staff to the director and provides information technology, law enforcement support, finance, administration, and regulatory licensing for the entire department.
The Administration Section maintains DPS property, provides training to other divisions, and operates the Crime Records Service. The Crime Records Service maintains criminal justice information and issues concealed handgun licenses.
In 2009, the Department of Public Safety created the Criminal Investigations Division (CID) as part of a major restructuring of the department. The CID consists of 700 members, including 573 commissioned officers and 129 civilian support personnel. The CID Assistant Director's Office consists of the assistant director, deputy assistant director, an administrative major, and four civilian support personnel.
The CID is divided into four different sections, which are specialized by function:
The CID sections work together to prevent, suppress, and solve crime in cooperation with city, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. Multi-jurisdictional violations typically investigated by CID include terrorism, gang-related organized crime, illegal drug trafficking, motor vehicle theft, gambling, public corruption, fraud, theft, and counterfeit documents.
The Driver License Division is responsible for the issuing and revocation of Texas driver's licenses and identification cards.
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Wikipedia