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Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed budget would add 117 new state troopers, continuing to grow the Highway Patrol for the fifth year in a row, though some of the positions created last year remain unfilled.

Lee consistently has asked for more troopers in his budgets and, if approved by the state legislature, his newest proposal shared last week would mark 372 new positions over five years, bringing the total number of trooper positions to 1,044.

The $37.9 million addition to Lee’s proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget would add the troopers despite the Department of Safety having 233 unfilled positions at the time of the proposal, including an unknown number of trooper vacancies unfilled from the last increase.

Though the department has reportedly made enough contingent job offers to cover the unspecified number of trooper vacancies, the proposed investment prompted questions during the first meeting of the Finance, Ways and Means Committee last week.

At the meeting, committee chairman Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson) said he “dearly loves” the state troopers but asked why the budget would create new positions given current staffing.

“I’m not sure we have filled all of the trooper positions that we funded in the prior budget, so if we add an additional 100 troopers, we’d now have, theoretically, 333 open positions [in the department], which seems to be a growing number,” Watson said.

Finance Commissioner Jim Bryson told Watson that at least some vacancies were for positions funded in the most recent budget that have yet to be filled.

The point of adding the positions is to move forward with a Lee Administration goal of adding an unspecified number of troopers during his term.

“The administration had a goal to get to a certain number of troopers after doing some understanding of what we need in the state, and it was based on need. So we’ve been working toward that,” Bryson said.

A spokesperson for Lee deferred questions about staffing to the Tennessee Highway Patrol and did not share the governor’s target number of troopers. THP did not disclose an exact number of trooper vacancies, but described the department’s efforts to maintain full staffing.

“The Lee administration’s top priority is to keep communities safe, and we have had great success recruiting out-of-state law enforcement officers to join the ranks of the Tennessee Highway Patrol,” Maj. Travis Plotzer, a spokesperson for the THP told the Banner in an email. “As a result, Tennessee has graduated record numbers of State Trooper classes each year, reflecting our commitment to public safety and service.”

Plotzer noted that training, retirements and separations keep staffing numbers in flux, but confirmed that there are currently trooper vacancies. Plotzer explained that enough contingent job offers have been extended to applicants, and if they all accept the jobs and make it through the training and vetting process, it would more than cover the current number of vacancies.

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance said that a class of around 75 cadets would begin training later this month, and the Department of Safety planned to extend contingent job offers to between 125 and 130 others on Friday. The latter represents the preliminary offers mentioned by Plotzer, and some of them will begin cadet school in May.

During the meeting, Bryson attributed the moving target to the roughly 18-month-long budget process and the rigorous hiring process for law enforcement.

“They’ve got time to fill these positions,” Bryson said. “Whether they will get them all filled or not, I’m not sure. But they have to hire them, and they’re pretty specific about who they hire, and they also have to go through all their training before they actually get them on the road.”

The story was provided courtesy of the Nashville Banner. Sign up for the Nashville Banner’s newsletters here.