The Montana Highway Patrol (MHP) is the highway patrol agency for the U.S. state of Montana, for which it has state wide jurisdiction.

History

The Montana Highway Patrol was founded in 1935 after Montana led the nation with a 74% increase in highway fatalities. Twenty-four recruits taken from an application pool of over 1500 were selected to attend the first Highway Patrol Recruit Academy, and on May 1, 1935 those recruits took to the highways. Though authorized to enforce the eleven traffic laws in existence at that time, the Montana Highway Patrol's main focus was to educate and assist the public. In 1988, they became the first state highway patrol in the nation to become nationally accredited. The accreditation process took three years to complete and was considered a critical element in enhancing the professionalism of the Montana Highway Patrol. The Montana Highway Patrol currently have four specialty units that Troopers can be assigned to. They are: • Executive Protection (EP) • Special Response Team (SRT) • Criminal Interdiction Team (CIT) • Strategic Enforcement Traffic Team (SETT) The Montana Highway Patrol also operates an aviation divisions, which includes helicopter pilots and drone pilots. In recent years there has been a movement by the citizens of Montana to restructure the Montana Highway Patrol into a State Police Agency; however, there has not been any formal conversations regarding this change.

Organization

The Montana Highway Patrol is divided into eight districts.

Districts

There are seven districts that the MHP operates in throughout the state. District I (Missoula) – Mineral, Missoula, Ravalli, and Sanders counties District II (Great Falls) – Cascade, Fergus, Judith Basin, Petroleum, Teton, Wheatland, Blaine, Chouteau, Glacier, Hill, Liberty, Phillips, Pondera, and Toole counties District III (Butte) – Beaverhead, Deer Lodge, Granite, Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, Madison, Powell, and Silver Bow counties District IV (Billings) – Big Horn, Carbon, Stillwater, Musselshell, Golden Valley, and Yellowstone counties District V (Glendive) – Carter, Custer, Daniels, Dawson, Fallon, Garfield, McCone, Powder River, Prairie, Richland, Roosevelt, Rosebud, Sheridan, Treasure, Valley, and Wibaux counties District VI (Kalispell) – Flathead, Lake, and Lincoln counties District VII (Bozeman) – Broadwater, Gallatin, Madison, Meagher, Sweet Grass, and Park counties

Mission

The Highway Patrol's mission is to safeguard the lives and property of the people using the highway traffic system of Montana through education, service, enforcement, and interagency cooperation. The Patrol's 243 State Troopers cover great distances to police Montana's highways, assist other law enforcement agencies, and help motorists in need. Each year, the men and women of the Patrol: Troopers provide public safety education presentations on nearly every subject related to driving safety, including seatbelt use, driving under the influence (DUI), and child safety. There is currently a misconception that the Montana Highway Patrol can only enforce traffic laws on highways; however, the Patrol has state wide jurisdiction with the authority to enforce all state criminal, traffic, commercial, and/or wildlife laws.

Weapons

The Montana Highway Patrol uses a variety of lethal and non-lethal weapons, the weapons that are in use by the department are as follows:

Fallen officers

Since the establishment of the Montana Highway Patrol in 1935, eight officers have died while on duty.