Our past Chairman and current Communications Director, Colin Peabody, does an outstanding job keeping members informed through regular emails. He shares updates on upcoming events, important news, health concerns within our community, opportunities to serve, and notices about members who have passed and their memorial services. He also highlights happenings within the Arizona DPS and statewide news that may be of interest to our members.
Did you know, there are currently 12 groups gathering in various locations for Breakfast or Lunch? There are 3 locations in the Phoenix area as well as groups in Flagstaff, Show Low, Prescott, Kingman, Payson, Casa Grande, Tucson, Sierra Vista, and Yuma! Good food and good friends!
See the Calendar page to find out where and when these groups meet (open to members only).
Affordable options for members and guests
Per Member
For One Member and One Guest
Each Additional Guest
For Members only: List of our friends and fellow retirees we have lost in 2025.
login to view listOpportunities to Serve
A collection of stories from the Arizona Highway Patrol Coalition of Retirees. Some funny, some not-so-funny, some short, some long - ALL important to the history of the Arizona Highway Patrol.
The Coalition has sponsored a series of 5 books titled “That Reminds Me Of The Time”. Volumes one through 5 contain stories written by AHP and DPS personnel with adventures of individual officers, some with tragic events, some humorous and some historical about the formation of the Arizona Highway Patrol and Department of Public Safety.
Currently Volume One is out of print, but volumes 2,3 and 4 are available through the Coalition at a cost of $20 per book, with a portion of that amount being a donation to the Coalition, and through Amazon at their current pricing level.
Read Excerpts
When the pandemic hit and everyone was quarantined at home, Paul Palmer contacted Colin Peabody, Chairman of the Coalition of DPS Retirees, and talked over having retirees submit stories about their careers. The original thought was to collect them and then Colin would send them out to retirees in the CDPSR e-mails for our officers to enjoy as they were homebound. It was such a success people began saying the stories should be in a book. The book "That Reminds Me of The Time" was born.
Read Excerpts
The retirees of the Arizona Highway Patrol/ Department of Public Safety are back regaling us with their fantastic stories. As you have seen in book one and two these retirees are quite the story tellers. In book three they tell stories from pursuits and narcotics busts to a hair pulling monkey. The history of the Department of Public Safety begins with the Arizona Rangers and the Arizona Highway Patrol before becoming the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The member's names, began with Rangers, Highway Patrolmen, Officers and finally State Troopers. No matter the title, through the years the culture has remained the same as these dedicated, courageous men and women live up to the department's motto of "Courteous Vigilance. " Grab a beverage and ride along with these men and women and see what it is like to be an Arizona lawman.
Read Excerpts
When the pandemic hit and everyone was quarantined at home, Paul Palmer contacted Colin Peabody, Chairman of the Coalition of DPS Retirees, and talked over having retirees submit stories about their careers. The original thought was to collect them and then Colin would send them out to retirees in the CDPSR e-mails for our officers to enjoy as they were homebound. It was such a success people began saying the stories should be in a book. The book "That Reminds Me of The Time" was born.
Read Excerpts
Volume 5 is being readied for publication and should be available by the end of 2025. At the present time, no future volumes (Volume 6, 7, etc.) are anticipated for publication. If you have a story you would like to share, please reach out to Colin Peabody or Paul Palmer..
Read ExcerptsArizona Highway Patrol & Department Of Public Safety
Heritage Museum
The Coalition of DPS Retirees is composed of retired sworn and civilian members of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
This group was originally brought together in 1994 by then DPS Director Rick Ayars to provide input and support for the Department and its retirees.
Tom Milldebrandt, followed by Ernie Johnson served as the first Coalition Chairmen, both assisted by Larry Thompson serving as Vice Chairman.
In the beginning, and continuing to the present, the Coalition has been considered as an employee group within the DPS family.
Today, CDPSR has grown into an an integral part of the Department’s Support and Recovery System. This is a program of volunteers that are available to retirees and surviving spouses.
In 2003, the “Java-Jaunt” program was kicked off. This started, in a “targeted” sort of way, in areas where breakfast meetings were held in locations where other retirees lived. The “Java-Jaunts” have now morphed into regular breakfast retiree get togethers in the east and west Valley as well as Showlow, Flagstaff, Kingman, Yuma and Tucson.
Beautiful monuments honoring DPS fallen officers have been placed around the state by the Department with the cooperation of the AHPA and CDPSR. Since then, the CDPSR has taken on the responsibility of maintaining these monuments. This entails coating them with a preservative once each year and repainting the design and lettering when necessary.
The CDPSR e-mail network was begun as a way of maintaining contact with the members. Many live in other states and through e-mails, they receive information or updates just as quickly as those living in Arizona. This system is managed by Colin Peabody. Anyone who has any news on life events of DPS Retirees is encouraged to contact Colin at email@cdpsr.com. While the CDPSR emails are only sent to Coalition members, we encourage members to share any information they receive with others.
Regular meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month from September through April. In May, an annual meeting and banquet is held in Payson. There are no meetings during the summer months of June, July and August.
Meetings are held in Phoenix at AZPOST, 2643 E. University, except for the October meeting which is held in Flagstaff, and the February meeting which is held in Tucson.
The Coalition of DPS Retirees Officers
Chairman
Vice-Chair
Secretary
Communications
Treasurer
Membership
IT Services
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