David Matthewman was born in Miami. His father, William Matthewman, had been a police officer and subsequently became an attorney; he is now a federal judge. The family moved to Palm Beach County, and David graduated from FAU in 2013. After college, he developed a
career as an artist and photographer, making and selling ceramics and using drone photography
to market homes for sale. He was known as a “water guy” whose favorite place was the ocean.
Earlier this year David, 34, and his friend Jasi were heading north on I-95 near Boca Raton. Nearby, another motorist called for emergency response when he saw a vehicle entering the northbound express lane — heading south, in the wrong direction, and driving recklessly. There were no Florida Highway Patrol troopers available to respond, no opportunity for law enforcement to intercede.
South Florida has an immense gap between the number of necessary troopers and the number of available troopers. Whether at that moment stopping an unfolding tragic event could have happened, no one can be sure. It is known that troopers have, in the past, been able to stop a recklessly driven wrong-way vehicle before it caused severe harm to anyone — other than the trooper. In each such case, a trooper responded and courageously protected the public despite incurring serious injuries personally.
The wrong-way driver crashed his car head on into David’s car, resulting in the deaths of David, Jasi and the reckless driver. The tragedy once again pointed out a severe deficiency on Florida’s highways. There are far too few Florida state troopers, and they are vastly underpaid compared to all other states in the country. Attrition is increasing, and no new infusion of troopers is in the works. Due to lack of funds, the next academy class has been canceled. A hiring freeze has been imposed.
Meanwhile, the numbers of people, vehicles and road miles have all risen dramatically. Criminal activity on the highways, from hazardous driving to homicide, is raging. Added mission demands upon troopers are made without the provision of added personnel or funding. Assignments for spring break, campus protests, house of worship protection and deployment to the Mexico/Texas border take troopers off the highways.
Troopers are spread so thin as to diminish the safety of the public — and the troopers themselves. Despite outstanding professionalism and devotion to public service, FHP is being forced to do much more, with much less, making highway safety objectives impossible to attain.
Florida just enacted a new annual budget of over $116 billion. State cash reserves received an input of an additional $17 billion. Highway expansion was funded with an additional $15 billion. The state can afford to fix the FHP situation.
Florida officials should expand FHP by at least 100 troopers per year for the next five years. Future demands upon FHP will continue to increase, so it would be prudent to exceed that minimum objective.
Corrective action should commence immediately. FHP salaries should rise by 15% in year one. A step plan should be established to encourage longevity of service. Parity with trooper compensation in other states should become the rule. In year two, trooper pay should increase across the board to become at least equal to the national rank of No. 35. In year three, trooper pay should place FHP at least at the rank of No. 25. Thereafter, funding should adjust every two years to maintain pay at least at the mark of No. 25 nationally, subject only to specific determination by the state that actual financial inability prevents compliance in that particular year.
To accomplish the needed improvements, there are many existing funding sources. This plan can be implemented without any tax increase, fee increase or toll increase.
For one example, although there are many state toll roads, if a mere 3.5% of tolls collected on the Florida Turnpike alone (over $1.2 billion) was devoted to FHP, it would receive an additional $42 million annually. FHP would be fully funded. Tourists pay much of those tolls. Currently, less than 20% of turnpike tolls are allocated to highway maintenance and the rest goes toward new highway construction. Billions of dollars exist for all current and planned highway projects, and this miniscule allocation for highway law enforcement would not have any impact on construction.
A properly funded FHP must become a priority. Florida needs to enable and expand the Florida Highway Patrol.
Paul Novack is an attorney, a former six-term mayor of Surfside, the leader of an organized crime cold case investigation team, and a member of the Florida Highway Patrol Advisory Council.
