Recently, the Florida Highway Patrol's Lt. Mike Burroughs attended a Highway Watch Train-the-Trainer course held in Tallahassee where he learned about the program designed to train commercial motor vehicle (CMV) operators to be alert on Florida's roadways. The program is designed to train CMV operators to be aware of possible terrorist or other suspicious activities while traveling the streets and highways of Florida and to use these operators as an additional resource to assist law enforcement in their efforts to keep our citizens and visitors safe.

Basically, the Highway Watch program works by assigning a unique identifier code to each participating CMV operator so that law enforcement officials can properly identify the operator. The Highway Watch team member is trained in the correct method of reporting a variety of suspicious activities to law enforcement. The Highway Watch program will continue to prove a valuable tool for reporting suspicious criminal activities to proper law enforcement agencies.

The Florida Highway Patrol is committed to using every possible resource available to prevent acts of criminal activity and terrorism in our state. Through actively training additional CMV operators in the Highway Watch program, the FHP will effectively use a team approach to add more surveillance on our roadways to help curb crime and protect those traveling in our state.