OHP Braces For More Budget Cuts, Fears Public Safety Will Suffer

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said it could start taking even longer for troopers to respond to calls as they face more budget cuts. 

Already dealing with a budget crisis, they're now facing the possibility of more cuts, this time as much as 15 percent.  

Right now, troopers are limited to driving 100 miles a day. 

If the Department of Public Safety loses 15 percent of its budget, that limit could be even lower. 

Oklahoma Office of Management and Enterprise Services asked the Department of Public Safety to figure out what a 15 percent budget cut would mean.

"Just the fact that they asked that is alarming," said Trooper Dwight Durant. 

DPS said less money means fewer troopers and employees and also a hard hiring freeze.

It also means "the certainty" of 23 furlough days or just about five weeks without pay. 

But Durant said this isn't about his paycheck, it's about response times.

"We're gonna come, but we don't know when," Durant said. 

But, that's not all. 

"Also, you add in the factor that 26 percent of our force is up for retirement," Durant said. 

He said the number of commissioned officers with OHP is already down.

Right now they're at 795, which includes 600 troopers. 

He said ideally, they'd have 950 officers.

Durant said as manpower shrinks, it could mean eliminating the OHP Motorcycle Division and fewer people on lake patrol. 

"All these guys that are doing these specialized duties, they're gonna be pulled back out on the road because that's where our core function is," said Durant.

But, no matter how bleak the future looks, Durant said OHP will handle each challenge one at a time.

"If we look down the road, if we don't make changes, if we don't get an academy, if we don't get some funding - where we're gonna end up... we're not going to be able to function," Durant said.