In 1901 the territorial governor of the state organized the "Arizona Rangers." This small force made a strong impact on the rustling and smuggling problems of the time but was disbanded in 1909, three years before Arizona achieved statehood.

Twenty-two years later, because of concern regarding the growing number of accidents and unlicensed vehicles on its highways, the Arizona Highway Patrol was instituted as a branch of the Arizona Highway Department. This is one of the reasons why most license plates used by enforcement vehicles from the 1930's to the very early 1970's were Highway Department plates. The initial force in 1931 was limited to a superintendent, 14 patrolmen (one authorized for each county) and one desk sergeant.

In 1967, the governor's crime commission recommended creation of the department to "assemble state-level law enforcement activities into a single, effective governmental unit." Two years later, on July 1, 1969, the Arizona Department of Public Safety was officially established.

It consolidated the functions and responsibilities of the Arizona Highway Patrol, the Enforcement Division of the Department of Liquor Licenses and Control, and the Narcotics Division of the Arizona Department of Law. Since 1969, the Department has been charged with additional responsibilities and has developed into a modern, comprehensive law enforcement agency.

With its main headquarters in Phoenix, the DPS employs over 1600 employees working together to serve and support the interests of public safety throughout Arizona.

License Plates of the Arizona DPS/Highway Patrol

Since the agency was formed in 1931, Arizona Highway Department plates were primarily used on AHP patrol vehicles. These plates mirrored passenger plate formats and colors of the day, as can be seen by some of the examples below. The H within a diamond symbol characterized Highway Department plates and the use on marked AHP patrol vehicles continued until the early 1970's. Validation decals were used from 1962 to 1965 on the 1961 base plate. Plates were run front and rear during this time frame.

In late 1971/early 1972, new Department of Public Safety license plates were introduced for AHP marked patrol vehicles. These plates were made of embossed aluminum and were painted black on deep reflective orange. The state name was embossed along the top between the upper mounting holes. Below that was the registration number commencing with the prefix AZ followed by a dash and four numbers ranging from 1000 to 4900. Along the bottom of the plate was embossed DEPT.PUBLIC SAFETY. These plates were used until 1986 and the deep orange background had a tendency of fading to a dusty pink color from exposure to the blazing Arizona sun over a long period of time.

In the Summer of 1986, the 3M Company of Minnesota manufactured and provided experimental graphic license plates to be run on 200 of the 700 Arizona DPS patrol vehicles around the state. The idea behind the experiment was to see how the graphics, paint, reflective sheeting and holograms held-up against the blistering Arizona sun over a given time frame. The plates were aluminum and had embossed registration numbers painted blue over the reflective white sheeting. The remainder of the plate was silk-screened with a light blue banner along the top lateral quarter of the plate with ARIZONA screened in black between the upper bolt-holes. DEPT.PUBLIC SAFETY was screened in black along the bottom. The holograms consisted of up to five small Arizona HP 7-point star badges running vertically down the center sheeting of the plate. By late 1987, the experiment had run its course and plates began to be removed from the patrol vehicles. By January of 1988, 3M and Arizona DPS officials recalled the last of these plates for examination and subsequent destruction. Not many of these experimental plates survived, and even mint un-issued ones like the one pictured were also destroyed and sent for scrap. (Fortunately, mine escaped the "scrapped" part!)

Also in 1986, non-graphic Arizona DPS plates continued to be used on AHP patrol vehicles but painted reflective chrome yellow over brown. This color combination was developed to be more resistant to sun-fade than the previous black over reflective orange base plates. The plate format was otherwise identical to the 1971 version and the assigned numbers ranged from the AZ 5000's to the AZ 7000's. These plates were used concurrent to the 3M graphic license plate experiment conducted that year.

It was decided in 1988 to continue with the durable chrome yellow over brown plates that were still used during the same time period as the 3M experimental graphic plates. However, for reasons still unknown, the AZ prefix and the DEPT.PUBLIC SAFETY legend was dropped in favor of generic GOVERNMENT and STATE VEHICLE titled plates. These plates were in the numbering format of G-###@@.

In November of 1996, the state of Arizona re-plated to an attractive multi-colored design with a desert-scape along the bottom of the plate. Arizona state government plates assigned to the Highway Patrol used the same graphic base in the G-###@@ format, and continue to use it to this day.

Front Plates Used by Arizona DPS/Highway Patrol

From 1931 until at least 1971, the Highway Department plates were run front and rear. By the time the DPS and later versions came out, a variety of plates including no plates at all were used on the front of AHP vehicles. The most predominant were flat aluminum or plastic state flag plates. Some reflective, some not. Some with unit numbers inscribed, and others not. One issue as shown, placed the state speed limit "55 MPH" along the bottom.

Arizona Highway Patrol ACE Award License Plates

Since at least 1986, the AHP have had an Aggressive Criminal Enforcement award program similar to the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Louisiana State Police. The plate award program was split into 2 facets. The first ACE award plate was a plain flat white license plate. The AHP officer who would recover a stolen vehicle and arrest the car thief, would get a blue lightning bolt decal to affix to the plate which was displayed only on the front of the patrol car. Up to five bolts were supposed to be allotted to the flat plate. The second facet of the program was upon the completion of the fifth stolen vehicle recovery and arrest. This award plate was in similar color to the "bolt plate" but had the word ACE embossed in blue in the middle. The later ones were silkscreened as were the actual "bolt plates". It is unknown if the agency still has an ACE program and if ACE plates are still used. Please drop me a line if you know.

Motorcycle License Plates used by Arizona DPS

The information on motorcycle use by the Arizona Highway Patrol since its inception is very sketchy at best. S-prefix "State" motorcycle plates were used which were identical in shape, format and color to regular motorcycle plates of the day. Currently, motorcycle plates used by AHP motor units are similar in color and style as the car plates but have a four digit number followed by the suffix SA stacked on the right.