Arizona Department of Public Safety

Infobox Law enforcement agency
agencyname = Arizona Department of Public Safety
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commonname = Arizona Highway Patrol
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country = United States
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divtype = State
divname = Arizona
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legaljuris = Arizona
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sworntype = Officer
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chief1name = Roger Vanderpool
chief1position = Director
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Arizona Department of Public Safety is a law enforcement agency with its usual focus being protection of all Arizona highways. The department is under control of former Sheriff of Pinal County Roger Vanderpool.

Police officers and sheriffs' deputies in Arizona are also officers of the DPS, thus permitting them to cross jurisdictional lines to pursue and arrest wrongdoers.

History

Pursuant to 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 mandate consolidated 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 sustained progress and service, the Department has accepted many additional responsibilities and has become a multi-faceted organization dedicated to protecting and providing state-level law enforcement services to the public while developing and maintaining close partnerships with other agencies sharing similar missions.

The Department consists of four divisions - Highway Patrol, Criminal Investigations, Agency Support and Criminal Justice Support. Together these four divisions provide an immense and extensive range of vital 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 Justice Support Division is the Gang Intervention, Immigration and 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.

The vehicle of choice for the Arizona DPS/HP is the Ford Crown Victoria with the Police Interceptor package, and the Chevy Tahoe police package SUV. Their department issue weapons are, for handguns, 40 Caliber Sig Sauer P226 (or the alternative issue Sig Sauer P229), for long guns, the Patrol rifle 223 caliber Colt AR15A2 Colt M16A2 or Colt M4 with 15 30 round magazines and the 12 gauge Remington 870 shotguns.

Demographics [http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/lemas00.pdf U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics, 2000: Data for Individual State and Local Agencies with 100 or More Officers]

*Male: 92%
*Female: 8%

*White: 82%
*Hispanic: 14%
*Native American:2%
*African-American/Black: 1%
*Asian: 1%

pecialized Units

Arizona Highway Patrol, Criminal Investigation Division (CID), Agency Support and Criminal Justice Support.

Fallen Officers

Since the establishment of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, 26 officers have died in the line of duty. [ [http://www.odmp.org/agency/136-arizona-department-of-public-safety-arizona The Officer Down Memorial Page] ]

ee also

* List of law enforcement agencies in Arizona
* State police
* State patrol
* Highway patrol

References

External links

* [http://www.azdps.gov/ Arizona Department of Public Safety]
* [http://www.homelandsecurity.az.gov/index.htm Arizona Department of Homeland Security]
* [http://www.azdps.gov/information/default.asp Arizona Agencies]
* [http://www.dem.state.az.us/ Arizona Division of Emergency Management]
* [http://www.ready.gov/ Ready.gov]