Where Are FHP Resources Being Used in Hillsborough County?

Anytime I drive northbound on I-75 into Hillsborough County from down south after dark I am constantly passed by drivers going at least 90 mph and weaving from lane to lane.

Where is FHP?

Do you do ANY patrolling on I-75 in this area at night? You must not be doing much. Writing tickets there would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Do you have anyone working anywhere in Hillsborough county after dark? I certainly never see any of you.

go sit on 275, go sit on i-75 north, go sit on i-4 people are doing 90 everywhere, its like shooting fish in a barrel anywhere you are. i-75 down by the manatee county line at night, does not have much traffic, so we spend most our time where there are actually other people on the road.

We do write tickets down south on I-75. We write tickets all over. Thats why Hillsborough County makes so much money from citations they have to get some to surrounding counties.

You are writing tickets on I-275? I'm up and down 275 during daylight hours, and sometimes at night, from downtown to Bearss all the time and I seldom see FHP.

With regard to my query about I-75 near Manatee County, I'm not talking about late at night - I'm talking about just after sundown and I don't agree that "there's not much traffic."

I do realize that I-4 is bad too, but to me I-75 south seems neglected.

I'm not knocking you - I'm thinking you are understaffed.

.

understaffed yes, and dont forget under paid.

Oh yeah understaffed and under paid. I still do more then expected of me out there. I'm on I-275 everyday. I have been recognized off duty for being the trooper thats on I-275 all the time. On certain days there are about 3-4 of us on I-275, about 3-4 on I-75 and about 2-4 on I-4. During times of the day we get sent to state roads such as 301, dale mabry, hillsborough ave, sr 60, sr 674 to respond to crashes or other incidents. Which pulls us off the highway. take a look at our traffic site and see how busy we have been..

Well, I did see an FHP CSO on I-275 this morning. Once in a while I see a motor officer (FHP?) on 275.

It's a shame you are only out there on certain days.

I wish there were more of you.

Keep up the good work!

I wish there were more of you.



We wish there were more of us to! Too bad the Legislators denied our request for 50 new Trooper positions. Send emails to your Reps and Senators. They are the only ones that can do anything about our manpower issues, and they don't seem to thnk we have a problem.

I think its great that I'm only there on certain days, I have a life too you know.

You miss the point of wishing that the troopers were there every day instead of only on "certain days."

The wish is that there were enough troopers to have a presence there every day - not that YOU be there every day.



Get it? :roll:

Yeah it would be great if more of us were out there. I'm sure you would like more people working with you at your place of employment.

Come on, man, the guy is trying to give you a compliment...quit being an ass.

Ok your right sorry :oops:

Drive a fully marked police car and you will find it very hard to catch those people. Most people are not dumb. They see a cop and they behave. While off duty I am constantly ran off the road and have people flying by me at 100mph+. While on duty I have to hide in the bushes and use radar to catch people.

[quote="Honest Question":1iahm2w2]

I wish there were more of you.



We wish there were more of us to! Too bad the Legislators denied our request for 50 new Trooper positions. Send emails to your Reps and Senators. They are the only ones that can do anything about our manpower issues, and they don't seem to thnk we have a problem.[/quote:1iahm2w2]

FYI THE LEGISLATORS DID NOT DENY OUR REQUEST, ALL OF THE SUPERVISORS AGREED THAT WE WOULD TAKE THAT EXTRA MONEY AND USE IT TO GET PAID FOR COURTS HOURS. HENCE THATS WHY YOU DO NOT HAVE TO TAKE TIME BACK. READ THE MEMOS OUT OF YOU BOX DONT THROW THEM AWAY!!!!

What's more important, paying for court hours or having more troopers patrolling the highways of the state? I personally think being understaffed is an officer safety issue and FHP is setting themselves up for a law suit. Maybe if we had more troopers on the highways, it would decrease the high rate of traffic crashes (including fatalities).

:idea: You mean the court pay we should have been receiving all along, like other leo's. Oh yea and the pay that should have been brought up to speed years ago. Thank god I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, I could'nt do it all over again. I should have jumped ship long ago.

Maybe it will take a legislators family member getting killed by one of these nutcase drivers for them to wake the F$*& up and hire more people. Florida could dive into that 3 billion dollar budget surplus and do some good with it. I have worked several wrecks involving tourists, many have been hit and runs. It leaves a real good taste in people's mouth when they spend their hard earned money vacationing in Florida only to be ran off the road by some crack head. I have personally heard people say they will not come back to Florida just because of the way people drive here.

To whom it may concern, you don't see any troopers on the road! This is because we only have as many as 5 troopers on duty at any given time to cover the entire Hillsborough county. Perhaps if the legislature paid us more money we would attract more troopers and we would be more visable. trust me when I say we are busy. we are probably the most active law enforcement agency in the entire state (taking into account our short numbers).

Hey think of it this way atleast we are not stopping you and giving you cits........

To whom it may concern, you don't see any troopers on the road! This is because we only have as many as 5 troopers on duty at any given time to cover the entire Hillsborough county. Perhaps if the legislature paid us more money we would attract more troopers and we would be more visable. trust me when I say we are busy. we are probably the most active law enforcement agency in the entire state (taking into account our short numbers).

Hey think of it this way atleast we are not stopping you and giving you cits........

I am the original poster on this thread. I am truly disappointed to learn that there are so few of you on the road in Hillsborough County.

I am not cheered by the fact that "at least you aren't stopping me" because I pretty much stay within the speed limit and drive carefully. I am, rather, saddened by the fact that the drivers who whiz past me at 90+ mph and weave from lane to lane are getting away with it.

From what I read on the "Academy" thread, perhaps your recruitment procedures are too cumbersome and you lose some good prospects to other agencies. Obviously everyone would like to see higher pay, but I think the more immediate problem is there aren't enough authorized positions in the state budget.

My first message would be "Hire More Troopers" and my second would be "Pay Them Better."

For what it's worth, I'll write my state representative...........

For what it's worth, I'll write my state representative...........

That is really the best solution to the problem. I wish more folks would take the time to write to their elected officials. I write to mine all the time, but I'm sure they don't listen to me as much as they would listen to a non law enforcement person. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Keep us posted on any response you get from the representative.

From what I read on the "Academy" thread, perhaps your recruitment procedures are too cumbersome and you lose some good prospects to other agencies. Obviously everyone would like to see higher pay, but I think the more immediate problem is there aren't enough authorized positions in the state budget.

My first message would be "Hire More Troopers" and my second would be "Pay Them Better."

For what it's worth, I'll write my state representative...........

The pay issue is the reason we don't have enoughTroopers working the road. If the pay was better, nobody would leave the agency. Hiring more Troopers would be great but we already have almost 200 vacancies statewide. A rookie Trooper probably brings home about $1900 a month. A 10 year veteran Trooper might bring home $2000. In my office alone, we lost three veteran Troopers in three weeks. We lost a total of 34 years of experience. One Trooper left and went to another department. He got an instant $15,000 raise. None of the three that left really wanted to leave the patrol, but they had to for financial reasons. This is a great job, and if it weren't for the low pay, I really think there would be a waiting list for people to get hired.
If the State paid the Troopers well, a lot of the other problems would be solved. We would be able to hire the most qualified candidates instead of the ones that meet the minimum requirements. We wouldn't lose all the experience to other agencies. We wouldn't have to waste time and money training and equipping new Troopers.
Recently, there was a news article about a large city doing some recruiting. When asked how the Recruiter went about finding qualified applicants, he told the press that he just drove around until he found a State Trooper, then pitched his offer to him. Apparently tactics like that work well because we lose a ton of folks to other departments.
Please write your senators and reps. A public outcry to politicians is the only way for us to get any help. They don't care about 1700 state cops, but they do care about the millions of voters in Florida!

[Carl Shawver]

[quote="Honest Question":300x1j6b]


For what it's worth, I'll write my state representative...........

That is really the best solution to the problem. I wish more folks would take the time to write to their elected officials. I write to mine all the time, but I'm sure they don't listen to me as much as they would listen to a non law enforcement person. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Keep us posted on any response you get from the representative.[/quote:300x1j6b]

OK. I've started the ball rolling. I wrote a "letter to the editor" which was published in The Tampa Tribune on September 27th.

It said:

I am thoroughly fed up with having cars pass me on I-4 and I-75 at speeds in excess of 90 mph while they are weaving from the far left lane to the far right lane on the three-lane portions of the Interstate. The problem isn’t that they might kill someone; they are killing themselves and others.

We quite simply do not have enough troopers to do the job of properly policing these highways. At any given time here in Hillsborough County there are usually five or fewer troopers actually on the road doing their job. This is unacceptable!

The state needs to fund for many, many more troopers than we now have. Troopers’ salaries are also among the lowest of any law enforcement officers in the state. This needs correction as well. Make your voices heard!

---------------

I will be sending letters that say substantially the same thing to my Florida congressmen.

NOW - How about you troopers getting a few of your friends to do the same? You may think the congressmen will discount your letters because you are troopers, but surely you each have a couple of friends who will write or e-mail their congressmen on behalf of improving trooper pay and enlarging the force!

I am the person who started this thread. I want more troopers on the roads for the purely selfish reason that I want to be safer when I'm traveling on them.

Carl Shawver
HCSO - Retired

I really appreciate you taking the time to do that. I usually write to my reps a few times a year. Most of the time I get a response. My friends and family members write once in awhile to. I think the best way to take care of the problem is to make it a well known problem. Thanks again!

we are probably the most active law enforcement agency in the entire state [/quote]

YEAHHHHHHH GO RIDE IN SULPHUR SPRINGS, GRANT PARK, ROBLES PARK OR YBOR W/TPD OR IN THE BOX WITH HCSO.. BET YOU WONT BE WHINNING OUT TAKING A BUNCH OF S-4 CALLS. YOU PROBABLY WONT MAKE IT A SHIFT W/OUT FIGHTING SOMEONE OR POSSIBLY GETTING SHOT AT.... THINK YOU MIGHT GET A NEW PERSPECTIVE..

The best thing everybody can do is just leave FHP. Im tired of listening to the false promises, the union's lies, tolerating the horrible FHP agency, and being told what to do by incompetent supervisors with the people skills of a rock. I have a federal agency I am trying to get hired by. If that doesn't work then I will be on to the next. There are sooooo many jobs out there that are better than FHP. You are only wasting your life here by staying unless you are not smart enough to get another job, which some people at FHP aren't (i.e. some nameless Sgts, LTs, and Captains).

Just a little FYI. Teachers in Hillsborough County have a starting salary of $35,000, FHP is $36,000. That's right you can be a kindergarten teacher with every weekend off, every holiday off, and 3 months off during the summer and yet only make $1,000 less a year than a trooper that must work shifts, almost every weekend, and almost every holiday. We troopers arent just low paid, we are being kicked in the nuts everytime the state gives us a paycheck.

Anytime I drive northbound on I-75 into Hillsborough County from down south after dark I am constantly passed by drivers going at least 90 mph and weaving from lane to lane.

Where is FHP?

Do you do ANY patrolling on I-75 in this area at night? You must not be doing much. Writing tickets there would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Do you have anyone working anywhere in Hillsborough county after dark? I certainly never see any of you.

Don't worry about it. Those guys driving like maniacs are all off duty cops who want a break. They think its ok to put others at risk because they are above the traffic laws. :shock:

Drive a fully marked police car and you will find it very hard to catch those people. Most people are not dumb. They see a cop and they behave. While off duty I am constantly ran off the road and have people flying by me at 100mph+. While on duty I have to hide in the bushes and use radar to catch people.
FHP needs more unmarked

Drive a fully marked police car and you will find it very hard to catch those people. Most people are not dumb. They see a cop and they behave. While off duty I am constantly ran off the road and have people flying by me at 100mph+. While on duty I have to hide in the bushes and use radar to catch people.
FHP needs more unmarked

More? Heck, we need some.

Troopers are writing cits and responding to crashes constantly.
TRUE!
There are drivers in all area's of Hillsborough traveling way too fast. TRUE!
There are crotch rocket motorcycles traveling at scorching speeds and doing wheelies unchecked across Howard Frankland.
TRUE!

FHP is underpaid, which has contributed heavily to understaffing.
TRUE!
What has your governor and legislators done to improve safety????
TRUELY IGNORED THE SAFETY OF MOTORISTS AND THE ISSUES THAT CRIPPLE THE PATROL!

Drive a fully marked police car and you will find it very hard to catch those people. Most people are not dumb. They see a cop and they behave. While off duty I am constantly ran off the road and have people flying by me at 100mph+. While on duty I have to hide in the bushes and use radar to catch people.
FHP needs more unmarked

More? Heck, we need some.

yessir

Anytime I drive northbound on I-75 into Hillsborough County from down south after dark I am constantly passed by drivers going at least 90 mph and weaving from lane to lane.

Where is FHP?

Do you do ANY patrolling on I-75 in this area at night? You must not be doing much. Writing tickets there would be like shooting fish in a barrel.

Do you have anyone working anywhere in Hillsborough county after dark? I certainly never see any of you.

Oh so they only speed when they get to Hillsborough County? After driving 400 miles they go "Oh here is Hillsborough County!, let me kick it up to 90!..

You're a dipstick!

:shock:

I see the shocked faced idiot has come back to try and keep very old post alive. Give it up, nobody cares.

I see the shocked faced idiot has come back to try and keep very old post alive. Give it up, nobody cares.

hahah :lol: