Virgin Islands Office of Highway Safety

As a result of the sweeping changes in the Revised Organic Act of 1954, the Governor of the Virgin Islands, within one year from date of approval of the Act, was required to ''reorganize and consolidate the existing executive departments, bureaus, independent boards, agencies, authorities, commissions, and other instrumentalities of the Government of the Virgin Islands or of the municipal governments into not more than nine departments exclusive of such independent bodies whose existence may be required by Federal law for participation in Federal programs.''

It also required ''that the head of each executive department so constituted shall be designated as the Commissioner thereof, and that the Commissioner of Finance shall be bonded and that no other department, bureau, independent board, agency, authority, commission, or other instrumentality shall be created, organized, or established by the governor or by the Legislature, without the prior approval of the Secretary of the Interior unless required by Federal Law for participation in Federal programs...''

In keeping with this directive the Governor of the Virgin Islands on July 21, 1955, through executive Order No. 9, established the Department of Public Safety, as an executive department. He further declared that there shall be at the head of the department a Commissioner of Public Safety and that within the department there shall be ''two divisions which shall be known as the Police Division and the Fire Division.'' Further, that a chief officer shall be designated to head each Division and shall perform such functions as the Commissioner may prescribe.