Keoni Buenavista
Date: 05/03/2022
Prompt: Further funding should be put towards highway patrol and monitoring systems to ensure the safety of drivers. State and explain your opinion on this issue.
In the United States, and in other countries, highway patrol has the purpose of enforcing and overseeing if drivers comply with safety regulations on highways and roads. Within highway patrol or in other countries referred to as traffic police, it has 7 functions. These functions are Education, Commercial vehicle enforcement, Emergency response, Accident investigation, Law enforcement, Maintenance, and traffic enforcement. With a focus on the United States’ highway patrol, there are agencies in each state, (meaning a total of 50 highway patrol agencies) and they all have different duties that they perform with responsibility for each state. As a result of these responsibilities having to span over long distances, I believe that further funding should go to highway patrol and their monitoring systems as it will help to ensure driver safety.
One of the things that I believe will benefit Highway Patrol officers if they had further funding is having the greater ability to coordinate serious or complex cases. For example, there may be cases that relate to serious criminal activity, and more funding is needed to solve these cases. Some of the things that Highway Patrol officers may need in order to solve these cases are better investigative technology, more officers, better training, safety equipment, etc.
Another duty that HP officers can better fulfill is emergency and non-emergency response. With more funding, these agencies can take on more units and perhaps invest in better equipment to help deal with dangerous situations or accidents that happen on the highway. Regarding non-emergencies, agencies can have a much faster response time and have more tools to deal with these types of situations.
The last and most important duty of Highway patrol officers is the enforcement of commercial vehicles, law, and traffic. Officers on highways and near city roads enforce regulations and laws that are needed to improve road traffic safety, like speed limits. In rural areas, HP officers also help the police of a local area and keep watch for non-traffic violations. And on freeways and highways, they enforce the laws of the highway that are related to weight limits, commercial transport, and rules on hazardous materials.
In Conclusion, giving further funding to highway patrol agencies allows them to better fulfill their responsibilities and allows for better safety on roads, highways, and freeways. Additionally, these agencies with their patrol units have more functions than just patrolling roadways, as they actively are responsible for things like accident investigation, education in regard to public information to help ensure driver safety, and maintenance of public roads, highways, and freeways.