Montana Highway Patrol

History

The Montana Highway Patrol was founded in 1935 after Montana led the nation with a 74% increase in highway fatalities. Twenty-four recruits taken from an application pool of over 1500 were selected to attend the first Highway Patrol Recruit Academy, and on May 1, 1935 those recruits took to the highways. Though authorized to enforce the eleven traffic laws in existence at that time, the Montana Highway Patrol's main focus was to educate and assist the public.

In 1988, they became the first state highway patrol in the nation to become nationally accredited. The accreditation process took three years to complete and was considered a critical element in enhancing the professionalism of the Montana Highway Patrol.

The Montana Highway Patrol currently have four specialty units that Troopers can be assigned to. They are:

• Executive Protection (EP)

• Special Response Team (SRT)

• Criminal Interdiction Team (CIT)

• Strategic Enforcement Traffic Team (SETT)

The Montana Highway Patrol also operates an aviation divisions, which includes helicopter pilots and drone pilots.

In recent years there has been a movement by the citizens of Montana to restructure the Montana Highway Patrol into a State Police Agency; however, there has not been any formal conversations regarding this change.

In August 2025, Troopers of the Montana Highway Patrol SRT assigned to the United States Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force, played an intricate role in locating, and apprehending the accused shooter of the 2025 Anaconda shooting, which had left 4 people dead.

Organization

The Montana Highway Patrol is divided into eight districts.

Districts

There are seven districts that the MHP operates in throughout the state.

District I (Missoula) – Mineral, Missoula, Ravalli, and Sanders counties

District II (Great Falls) – Cascade, Fergus, Judith Basin, Petroleum, Teton, Wheatland, Blaine, Chouteau, Glacier, Hill, Liberty, Phillips, Pondera, and Toole counties

District III (Butte) – Beaverhead, Deer Lodge, Granite, Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, Madison, Powell, and Silver Bow counties

District IV (Billings) – Big Horn, Carbon, Stillwater, Musselshell, Golden Valley, and Yellowstone counties

District V (Glendive) – Carter, Custer, Daniels, Dawson, Fallon, Garfield, McCone, Powder River, Prairie, Richland, Roosevelt, Rosebud, Sheridan, Treasure, Valley, and Wibaux counties

District VI (Kalispell) – Flathead, Lake, and Lincoln counties

District VII (Bozeman) – Broadwater, Gallatin, Madison, Meagher, Sweet Grass, and Park counties

Mission

The Highway Patrol's mission is to safeguard the lives and property of the people using the highway traffic system of Montana through education, service, enforcement, and interagency cooperation.

The Patrol's 243 State Troopers cover great distances to police Montana's highways, assist other law enforcement agencies, and help motorists in need. Each year, the men and women of the Patrol:

• drive more than 5,500,000 mi
• respond to over 70,000 calls for service
• issue more than 85,000 arrest tickets and more than 100,000 warning tickets

Troopers provide public safety education presentations on nearly every subject related to driving safety, including seatbelt use, driving under the influence (DUI), and child safety.

There is currently a misconception that the Montana Highway Patrol can only enforce traffic laws on highways; however, the Patrol has state wide jurisdiction with the authority to enforce all state criminal, traffic, commercial, and/or wildlife laws.

Weapons

The Montana Highway Patrol uses a variety of lethal and non-lethal weapons. The weapons that are in use by the department are as follows:

• S&W MP 2.0 4.25” 9mm
• SIG Sauer P229 .357 Sig
• Beretta 1301 Tactical
• Rock River Arms M4 Carbine style AR-15. The MHP also have military surplus M-14 rifles.
• OC (oleoresin capsicum) Spray
• Taser X2

Fallen officers

Since the establishment of the Montana Highway Patrol in 1935, eight officers have died while on duty.

References

References

1. [http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/csllea04.pdf USDOJ Statistics] ({{webarchive. link. (2008-11-20 ))
2. [http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/csllea04.pdf USDOJ Statistics] ({{webarchive. link. (2008-11-20 ))
3. (February 2018)
4. [https://www.odmp.org/agency/2570-montana-highway-patrol-montana Officer Down Memorial Page]