Texas Highway Patrol

Texas Highway Patrol
Texas Highway Patrol Crest
Texas Highway Patrol Door Seal
Texas Highway Patrol Badge
Texas Highway Patrol Patch
Abbreviation	THP/TxDPS
Motto	Courtesy, Service, Protection
Agency overview
Formed	1929; 95 years ago (1929)
Preceding agency	Texas Highway Motor Patrol
Jurisdictional structure
Operations jurisdiction	Texas, U.S.
Size	261,797 square miles (678,050 km2)
Population	29,360,759 (2020)
Legal jurisdiction	State of Texas
General nature	Civilian police
Operational structure
Headquarters	Austin, Texas
Troopers	2,802 (authorised, as of 2023)[1]
Agency executive	Dwight Mathis
Parent agency	Texas Department of Public Safety
Regions	7
Districts	19
Website
[1]

The Texas Highway Patrol is a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety and is the largest state-level law enforcement agency in the U.S. state of Texas. The patrol's primary duties are enforcement of state traffic laws and commercial vehicle regulation, but it is a fully empowered police agency with authority to enforce criminal law anywhere in the state. Also, they respond to emergencies on Texas’s highways. Highway patrol troopers are also responsible for patrolling the state Capitol Complex in Austin and providing security to the governor. The current Chief is Lieutenant Colonel Dwight Mathis.^[2]

The highway patrol was founded in 1929 as the Highway Motor Patrol, the first statewide law enforcement agency in Texas since the establishment of the Texas Rangers in 1823, and the first such force to be uniformed and regularly trained. Since 1935, the agency has operated under its current name. Since its inception with just 60 officers, then known as "inspectors", the Texas Highway Patrol has grown to meet the increasing volume of vehicular traffic on Texas roads, modern security threats, and the requirements of twenty-first century policing, currently employing over 2,800 sworn troopers.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), and by extension the Highway Patrol, is Texas's de facto state police.