The Delaware State Police was formed in 1923 when a need to regulate and maintain safety on the state's highways and roadways soon became apparent.

Since 1917, the task of maintaining law and order on the First State's highways was left to the Highway Traffic Police who were hired by the State Highway Commission. In these early days the H.T.P. consisted of one officer whose sole function was to patrol the Philadelphia Pike near Wilmington. In the following year the force was increased to three men and three motorcycles. From 1920 to 1923 these men served directly under the State Highway Commission.

In 1925, the division realized the need for an increase in manpower and the inauguration of twenty-four hour service to provide increased protection and better service to the public. In the same year, the Canine Unit was first established to respond to an increase in prowler complaints. In 1931, the name of the organization , by act of the General Assembly, was officially changed from "State Highway Police" to "State Police".

A milestone was reached on May 29, 1957, with the first expansion of State Police facilities since 1925. On this date Troop 4A, now Troop 7, was opened to give better protection to the citizens of the beach areas. During the latter part of 1960, the State Police acquired its first fixed wing aircraft for traffic and criminal investigations. The year 1963, saw the initiation of 24 hour patrols of the Delaware Turnpike. In an effort to better serve the public, the State Police opened a new State Police sub-station, Troop 2A, (now Troop 6) on the Kirkwood Highway in 1964.

The 1970's saw the Delaware State Police providing the bulk of the manpower for a drug strike force within the state as well as the formation of a Special Weapons and Tactics unit in 1975. As an organization, the State Police has attempted to maintain a high standard of excellence within the framework of the current police technology. The Delaware State Police has made a number of great strides in progress since its inception in 1923. The Division of one officer has grown to over five hundred and addressing the problems and concerns for public safety continues to remain a priority.

The Delaware State Police have run regular passenger license plates on the rear of its patrol cars and trucks and regular motorcycle license plates for their patrol motors since day-one. Most of those plates issued after 1942 were validated by standard expirable validation tabs and decals, and some by dated Exempt validation decals for a time during the 1960's and 1970's. Some titled STATE POLICE license were run on the front of patrol cars and trucks during this time as well and an optional titled plate was also available during the late 1980's/early 1990's.

Delaware State Police License Plates

In the early 1940's, many special issue license plates were issued by the state of Delaware to various state officials. One of which was a titled license plate with the inscription: SUPERINTENDENT (over) DELAWARE STATE POLICE used on the front of the DSP patrol vehicle operated by Supt. Paul W. Haviland who served in this position from 1943 to 1947. This plate may have belonged to his predecesor and passed along for his use. It is believed that this plate is still in DSP hands today at Headquarters. A photo of this historical gem would be very much appreciated on this page!

STATE POLICE "titled" license plates run in the late 1950's to 1960's are BELIEVED to be "unofficial" issues that individual troopers may have had made by the highway department. This is not a "confirmed" fact, but one which has been true in later years during a renewed interest in displaying an "agency specific" license plate on DSP patrol vehicles. The plates were made on a standard yellow-gold over blue base plate, but with the words STATE POLICE in upper case block letters where numbers would ordinarily go.
Regular passenger-numbered license plates were still being displayed on the rear of DSP patrol vehicles, but it is believed (not confirmed) that the passenger plates were validated by annual EXEMPT validation decals into the late 1970's. Therefore, not ALL DSP patrol vehicles ran titled STATE POLICE plates on the front during this time.

As stated and shown earlier, DSP patrol vehicles have run standard-issue passenger-numbered license plates "out of the box" with no reserved number blocs. It is believed, but not confirmed that DSP patrol vehicles validated these regular passenger license plates with annual EXEMPT validation decals during the 1960's into the 1970's and intermittently during the 1980's. If this is the case, the following decals give you a sense of what was used to validate DSP plates during this time frame.

2023 marked the 100th Anniversary of the Delaware State Police.
Part of the celebration of the Centennial milestone was creating and deploying commemorative assets such as retrospective uniforms, and insignia that have been used throughout DSP's history as well as historical vehicle markings.
However the most significant implementation for the occasion (in THIS writer's opinion!) was the approval to create and display actual Delaware State Police 100th Anniversary license plates on the marked fleet.
It began earlier in the year with a "booster" plate to be run on the front only of DSP marked vehicles.
The plates were embossed aluminum in a dark blue over reflective yellow/gold background and trimmed on the outer edge in dark blue. DELAWARE was silkscreened on a light gray "winged motif" and centered between the upper mounting holes. STATE POLICE was screened in dark blue between the lower mounting holes.
The DSP 100th Anniversary emblem occupied the far left center of the plate silkscreened in black and white over light gray and the number 1923, the founding year of the DSP, was embossed in dark blue for the remainder of the center field of the plate.
As exciting as this significant new feature was, it was just the "appetizer".
Approval was finally achieved for the first time in the Delaware State Police's 100 year history to be issued their very own "agency-specific" numbered license plates seen further below.
But there's an interesting and personal back-story to all of this:
Back in September of 2006, state police/highway patrol license plate collector and creator of this website, Norm Ratcliffe attended a picnic event hosted by the Delaware State Troopers Association at Lums Pond State Park just north of Middletown Delaware. During the course of this enjoyable day, Norm was introduced to an energetic and friendly DSP trooper by the name of Jason Sapp. Both men were strong supporters of their respective agencies (Norm at the time was an Auxiliary Staff Sergeant/Unit Commander with the Ontario Provincial Police) and their support extended to an interest in promotional materials such as shoulder patches, badges, coins and of course, license plates.
Over the course of the next couple of years, Norm and Jason would meet up at other annual Trooper picnics in the north east.
In 2009, the Ontario Provincial Police celebrated its 100th Anniversary. Norm had submitted a proposal up his chain of command to have special OPP 100th Anniversary license plates created for the marked fleet. Norm created a 32 page "business case" addressed and sent to the Commissioner of the OPP outlining designs and like this website, a historical essay of how such Anniversary license plates were created for other agencies of the size and scope of the OPP down in the USA.
Ontario, like Delaware had never done anything like this before. Both the OPP and DSP for their entire history only ran plain passenger car license plates on their fleet despite deserving better. The bureaucracy in the way of changing "the way its always been" was daunting and deep for both jurisdictions.
But, long story short; the OPP finally did launch a 100th Anniversay license plate for the entire marked OPP fleet from January of 2009 until November of 2010.

On September 15 2023, Norm and now MAJOR Jason Sapp once again met on the hallowed ground of another DSTA-hosted Trooper Picnic, this time on the shores of Dewey Beach Delaware. Obviously, DSP 100th Anniversary "everything" was the theme: the uniforms, the insignia, the historic livery schemes of DSP vehicles of the past century.
Word soon spread that morning that "the Big Boss" Colonel Melissa Zebley had arrived at the picnic site.
A friend of Norm's had approached him at his table and said that; "Jason needs to see you" and escorted Norm to another table. While Norm was waiting, he could see two guys in regular picnic attire (shorts and t-shirts) squatting down in front of an unmarked silver Dodge Durango under the watchful eye of a fully-uniformed DSP Trooper. It wasn't long before Norm realized that the Durango belonged to the Colonel and these two guys were "stealing" the front "1923" license plate!
Having been to about 8 of these annual picnics, Norm realized that maybe a bit of "beer bravery" was involved and turned back to waiting for Jason.
About 2 minutes later, Jason walks up to Norm with a serious and sullen face and says; "Norm, the Colonel wants to speak with you..." Norm's heart jumped into his mouth, thinking that Colonel Zebley thought that Norm (the license plate freak) was the culprit who stole the license plate of the front of her vehicle.
As Norm approached the Colonel who was standing next to her Durango while a new "1923" license plate was being installed, he could see that she was smiling and holding the "stolen goods". She extended her hand and said to Norm; "So pleased to finally meet you...Jason says you were a big part of this, would you mind if I gave you my plate with my signature on the back?.."
It doesn't get much better than that.

When Jason Sapp as a young Lieutenant after having spoken to Norm about how Delaware State Police need "their own plates", he began to bend the ear of Senior Command about the idea.
In 2010/11, Jason asked Norm if it would be possible to forward to him the 32 page business case proposal for the OPP 100th Anniversary plates which also extended to more permanent styles of agency license plates.
The request was fulfilled immediately and the long arduous process to move the bureaucracy mountain began in earnest.
The years went by and Jason was promoted to Captain and then a Major. NOW with a rank higher to the top, the push could become more supported.
Finally, the DSP not only approved the idea in time for the occasion of the "2023" DSP Centennial Anniversary "booster" license plate, but also a PERMANENT DSP registration license plate to be run on the rear of the marked DSP fleet!
By the end of October of 2023 the hard work, tenacity and persistence finally paid-off. The new DSP license plates appeared identical to the layout of the 100th Anniversary "booster" plates, however black was used in lieu of the dark blue for the raised characters and border outline, the 100th Anniversary emblem was substitued with a white roundel outlined in black with the DSTA emblem of a DSP Trooper from the shoulder line to the top of the campaign hat with the words DEDICATED TO THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES FOR PUBLIC SAFETY inscribed from the 7 o'clock position to the 3 o'clock position.
The registration number was ST followed by the 4 didit state asset number (car number) of the vehicle.
The car numbers at the time of the transition were in the 8500-8900 block.
Those numbers increase until 9999 is reached and then the numbers are supposed to restart at 0001.

Delaware State Police Motorcycle License Plates

Delaware State Police Auxiliary License Plates

During and shortly after World War II, and with many DSP troopers deployed overseas for the fight against the Axis powers, there was a vacuum left behind at home for this loss of sworn DSP personnel. Auxiliary State Police Officers were sworn-in and deployed to fill in where DSP troopers were not numerous enough to fulfill the mandate of public safety. Much of their duties involved securing of facilites and infrastructure vital to the economy and utility of Delaware. These Auxiliary Officers were tied-in to the Civil Defense of the day and comprised mainly of military veterans and other civic-minded volunteers for state law enforcement.

Delaware State Trooper Association License Plates

The Delaware State Troopers Association commissioned a variety of designs and layouts as optional front plates since the 1980's. These were not official DSP issues, but some DSP troopers ran these plates on the front of their patrol vehicles.
It is not known which ones came out first and which ones followed suit.
Any confirmation in this regard would be greatly appreciated.

Delaware State Police Retired License Plates

Retired members of the Delaware State Police have the option of running distinctive "Delaware State Police- Retired" license plates on their personal vehicles.