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 1960'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.

State Flag

The 13 rays of red and gold on the top half of the flag represent
both the 13 original colonies of the Union, and the rays of the
Western setting sun. Red and gold were also the colors
carried by Coronado's Spanish expedition in search of the
Seven Cities of Cibola in 1540. The bottom half of the flag
has the same Liberty blue as the United States flag.
Since Arizona was the largest producer of copper in the
nation, a copper star was placed in the flag's center.

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 orange. The state name was embossed along the top between the upper bolt-holes. Below that was the registration number commencing with the prefix AZ followed by numbers ranging from 1000 to 4900. Along the bottom of the plate was DEPT.PUBLIC SAFETY embossed. 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 sun over a long period of time.

In 1986, DPS plates continued to be used on AHP patrol vehicles but on a chrome yellow over brown color that was supposed to be more resistant to sun-fade. The plate format was otherwise identical to the 1971/72 version and the numbers ranged from the 5000's to the 7000's.