MONTGOMERY, Ala. — According to a recent study, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) has less than half the State Troopers it needs to adequately patrol the state’s roads.

“I am proud of our Alabama State Troopers. They diligently patrol all roadways in Alabama – state, federal, and county,” said Secretary of Law Enforcement Spencer Collier in a press release discussing the study. “But we are operating at 42 percent of recommended staffing, according to a recent study by the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS), with only 418 state troopers to cover Alabama roadways which is also substantially less than surrounding and similar size states.”

The CAPS study recommends the Yellowhammer State have a minimum of 1,016 troopers. In their analysis, CAPS cites the fact that Alabama has fewer troopers that its Southeastern neighbors.

• Alabama Highway Patrol: 418 troopers
• Florida Highway Patrol: 1,800 troopers
• Georgia Department of Public Safety’s State Patrol: 629 troopers
• Louisiana State Police: 543 troopers
• Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol: 375 troopers*
• Tennessee Highway Patrol: 610 troopers

*Mississippi’s troopers only patrol state and federal highways.

However, a deeper analysis shows that Alabama’s situation may not be as dire as the study suggests. A statistical breakdown shows that Alabama has comparable numbers to similar states and actually has a better person to trooper ratio than Georgia, the 8th most populous state in the nation.

The recommended number of troopers under the CAPS proposal (1,016) would give Alabama the lowest person to trooper ratio in the Southeast, surpassing the nation’s third most populous state, Florida, which currently has 11,051 people per officer.

No state in the Southeast would have anywhere close to Alabama’s ratio under the proposal.

Research also calls into question the correlation between more patrolmen on the road and safety outcomes.

Mississippi’s current force, with a higher ratio than Alabama’s, has not been able to prevent tragedy at a more effective rate, where the 48 deaths per 10,000 annually on the roads ranks number one in the country.

“State Troopers have been understaffed for a number of years,” said Secretary Collier. “To determine the number of State Troopers Alabama needs to safely patrol and enforce laws on Alabama roadways, an independent study was conducted by the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS). CAPS used industry-standard software, Police Allocation Manual (PAM), to accurately analyze characters of the needs based on specific criteria within the State.”

The CAPS study researched the following areas to determine their outcome:

1. Activity reports from 16 posts during calendar year 2013. (A post was activated in Eufaula in October; in the activity report, activities for Eufaula are mixed with other posts).
2. Statistics from state databases as to the number of crashes and citations.
3. Data from maps, that were used to estimate post square miles and mileage of roads.
4. A workshop held at UA including DPS management representatives.
5. Many estimates and assumptions that were necessary to get even a first pass analysis. These were discussed with DPS, and an effort was made to make these reasonable. There are many limitations in the available data.