Opinion ID: 1770591
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: function of the department of highway safety

Text: The Department of Highway Safety is a large component department of Florida's executive branch. On its internet web page, the following Overview of its function is presented: At the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV), we come into contact with nearly every Floridian. People visit our offices to get a driver license to operate their vehicles. They come to us to register and title these same vehicles. They may receive assistance from the Florida Highway Patrol when their vehicle breaks down along Florida's highways or be reminded to slow down and buckle up. But there is more to DHSMV than meets the eye. Our mission is making highways safe through service, education and enforcement. More than 5,000 people around the state are dedicated to accomplishing this mission in more ways than most people know. You may be surprised by some of the duties department members perform. Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles, Overview (visited December 20, 1999) . Additionally, the Department of Highway Safety describes its mission as follows: [promoting] a safe driving environment through law enforcement, public education and service, reduction of traffic crashes, titling and registering of motor vehicles and vessels, licensing motor vehicle operators, and regulat[ing]... motor vehicle exhaust. Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles, Quarterly Report, July-September 1999Mission Statement. Also, the following are among the listed goals of the Department of Highway Safety: (1) to provide the most effective highway safety and enforcement programs through the use of appropriate traffic and criminal law enforcement ...; (2) to provide administration and management to meet the challenge of highway safety and support the headquarters and field activities of the department; and (3) to  provide assistance to local, state, and federal agencies and highway safety organizations through a comprehensive records and management information system which reflects driver and vehicle status and traffic crash information. Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles, Goals (visited December 20, 1999) (emphasis added) (citations omitted). To effectuate these interrelated goals, the Department is organized into four divisions. [2] Two of these divisions, the Highway Patrol and the Division of Driver Licenses, account for nearly three-quarters of the Department's staff. [3] See Florida Highway Patrol, Overview (visited December 20, 1999) . The larger of the two, the Highway Patrol, represents 45% of the total staff. See Florida Highway Patrol, Overview (visited December 20, 1999) While each division is supervised by a separate director and has its own organizational structure, see Fla. Admin. Code R. 15-1.003-.006, the Department as a whole is subject to section 20.05(1), Florida Statutes (1997), which provides: Each head of a department, except as otherwise provided by law, must: (a) Plan, direct, coordinate, and execute the powers, duties, and functions vested in that department or vested in a division, bureau, or section of that department; powers and duties assigned or transferred to a division, bureau, or section of the department must not be construed to limit this authority and this responsibility. ... Moreover, section 321.05, Florida Statutes (1997), gives broad law enforcement powers to [t]he [highway] patrol officers under the direction and supervision of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles,  § 321.05, Fla. Stat. (1997) (emphasis added). Accordingly, because the Department of Highway Safety is charged with law enforcement both in fact and by law, we conclude that it is clearly a law enforcement agency. As noted above, the Department of Highway Safety not only considers itself a major law enforcement agency, but it has specifically articulated as one of its three major goals the following: Provid[ing] assistance to local, state, and federal agencies and highway safety organizations through a comprehensive records and management system which reflects driver and vehicle status information. Hence, it is apparent that the Department itself recognizes the critical role the Division of Driver Licenses plays in law enforcement. Since its inception, one of the primary responsibilities of the Department's driver's license division has been to create and maintain a permanent record for every licensed driver, including the recording of revocations, suspensions, disqualifications, convictions, crashes and other driving history information. See § 322.20, Fla. Stat. (1997). In fact, much of the information comes from the Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies. See Fla. Admin. Code R. 15-1.004(4)-(6). The Department estimates that in the 1998-1999 fiscal year, the Division of Driver Licenses will process over 15,400,000 driver records, including roughly 85,000 license revocations and more than 919,000 suspensions. See Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles, Driver License Facts & Figures (visited December 20, 1999) . Of course, the maintenance of records of revocations and suspensions clearly relate directly to the enforcement of the laws relating to driving privileges. More importantly, however, as the State conceded at oral argument, every law enforcement agency in the state, from the Highway Patrol to the smallest municipal police department, relies on the division's records to verify driver's licenses and their current status in order to enforce the law. Accordingly, not only is the division an integral part of the Department of Highway Safety and its overall mission, but in terms of reliance upon the accuracy of its records, it is a vital part of the law enforcement infrastructure of the entire State of Florida. [4]