The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is accepting applications for its 70th academy. OHP said attracting new recruits is a challenge because of low pay but that's something lawmakers are working to change. 

A House Bill is putting more money in the hands of Oklahoma Highway Patrol Troopers. 

“House Bill 4386 is a very simple bill, but it is very important to the men and women that serve the state of Oklahoma as the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. It just gives them a 35% pay increase,” said Ross Ford, the Republican House Representative from Broken Arrow. 

The bill passed unanimously in the House and now heads to the Senate. 

“It is great to see the support on both sides of the political aisle. We serve the citizens of Oklahoma it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are at,” said Trooper Eric Foster with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. 

The starting salary for an OHP trooper is $49,414. The potential raise would bump that pay to $66,708. 

“It really helps keep us competitive on the recruiting end,” said Foster. 

The department is currently down more than 300 troopers and Foster said it’s difficult when many recruits choose nearby police departments with higher wages. 

“We’re down the list when it comes to pay-scale for law enforcement. This pay raise would put us at the top it would put us at number 1 in the state,” said the Trooper. 

If the bill passes in the Senate the new raise will go into effect on July 1. 

“For guys that have been doing it for a long day and haven’t had a pay raise in 10 years even though the population has gone up, the workload has gone up, cost of living has gone up. All those things have changed over 10 years and the pay to stay the same, that just shows they do it because they love it,” he said. 

If the bill passes it will cost the state $16.5 million for the 2023 fiscal year.