OHP Extends Deadline, Offers Incentives to Encourage Applicants for Academy

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — The next 24 hours could be huge for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, that’s how long trooper hopefuls have to apply to this summer’s academy.

It’s a problem that’s been hitting law enforcement agencies across the country, finding, and retaining enough personnel, and for OHP, it’s forced them to change how they would like to operate.

“We’re down quite a few hundred, right now,” said OHP Trooper Mark Southall. “It does impact our daily operations. We get spread thin, and where we would like to see situations with two troopers or three troopers, we often find ourselves with one trooper.”

They’ve done things they believe will incentivize more people to come out. Prospective troopers now only need 24 college credit hours to apply and then they can finish the program with the academy, and military veterans with two years of service qualify as well.

But what they hope will really bring people out is a 35% pay increase that once past would take effect July 1.

“We do need to be competitive among other departments in this pay increase which would put us very near to the top, which we’re thankful for,” said Southall. “We’re hoping that entices some really good applicants to come and join the ranks of OHP patrol. We recruit a lot of people that have a heart to want to help people. And those are the type of people that we’re looking for, people that put the others first before themselves,”

The deadline to apply for the academy is tomorrow at 11:59 p.m., and they’ll start to notify people if they’ve been accepted in a couple of weeks.

They are hoping to have roughly 70 recruits for the class.

Information on how to apply can be found here.