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Mobile User Name

Mark Brown

Boating Law Administrator,
OK Highway Patrol Marine Enforcement Section (retired)
Silver Member
Silver Most
Valuable Member

Bio

​Lieutenant Mark Brown retired September 30, 2022.

He began serving the citizens of Oklahoma on July 7, 1986, as a State Trooper assigned to the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety Lake Patrol Division.  His first assignment was as a Marine Patrol Officer on the 10,100 acre Waurika Lake located in Southwestern Oklahoma.  During this assignment, he was responsible for enforcing boating laws and regulations, conducting vessel safety inspections, investigating boating accidents, leading marine search, rescue and recovery missions, conducting marine theft and fraud investigations as well as instructing boating safety courses and seminars.

In November, 1997, Lt. Brown was tasked with developing a Marine Law Enforcement Training program for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol Marine Enforcement Section.  Since then, he has been responsible for developing more than 800 hours of Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) certified courses.  These courses have been taught to OHP Troopers, other municipal, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies and to other state marine patrol agencies including Texas, Arkansas, Kansas, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana, Louisiana and many others. Courses developed by Lt. Brown have been the genesis for many of the marine law enforcement training programs in use today.  As Training Coordinator for the OHP’s Marine Enforcement Section, Brown’s duties include recruiting, training and managing instructors for all marine law enforcement training within the OHP Marine Enforcement Section as well as instructing law enforcement officers in patrol vessel and airboat operations, state boating laws, marine officer survival techniques, marine tactics, accident investigation and reporting and other marine law enforcement topics.  Lieutenant Brown continues to develop and provide marine law enforcement training for marine patrol officers.

In addition to being tasked with Marine Law Enforcement Training development, Brown was also responsible for evaluating and updating Oklahoma’s Boating Safety Course.  He was responsible for implementing the current boating safety education program used in Oklahoma. He wrote the policies, procedures and guidelines for the Oklahoma Boating Education Volunteer Instructor Program.

Lieutenant Brown has served on the National Association of State Boating Law Administrators (NASBLA) Education Committee and has served as a committee member, Charge Leader, Sub-Committee Chairman, Committee Vice-Chairman, and served two years as the NASBLA Education Committee Chairman.  As a member of the committee he has worked on multiple committee charges and projects.  He has served as a NASBLA Regional Reviewer for Course Standards and a member of the review panel for materials submitted to NASBLA for the NASBLA Seal of Safe Boating Practices.   

Lieutenant Brown serves as the Boating Accident Report Data (BARD) entry person for the State of Oklahoma and provides analysis of the data and assists in strategic planning for the reduction of vessel accidents and fatalities within Oklahoma.  He designed the current boating accident report form currently in use in Oklahoma and wrote the instructional manual as a guide to assist in the proper completion of boating accident reports.  

Since 1998, Lt. Brown has served as a subject matter expert for Oklahoma Boating Laws, Special Rules and Regulations.  He has helped draft bills implementing changes in Oklahoma’s boating laws, most notably, the Kyle Williams Boating Education Act which requires mandatory boater education for the youth of Oklahoma and was enacted by the Oklahoma Legislature in 2006.  He has appeared before Oklahoma Legislative Committees on numerous occasions and participated in key interim studies to provide insight into boating safety issues that impact the safety of Oklahoma’s lakes and waterways.

In April 2008, Lt. Brown was elected as a Member-at-Large board member for the National Water Safety Congress.  As a member of the NWSC, Brown has served as Chairman of the Education and Training Committee and the NWSC Region 4 Vice-president.  From 2014 to 2016, Brown was served as NWSC Executive Vice President where he was tasked with re-writing and modernizing the NWSC’s Governing By-Laws which were passed by unanimous vote of the NWSC membership in 2015.  Also, during 2015, Brown was re-elected as the National Water Safety Congress Vice-President.  Later that year, he joined the Maritime Professionals Caucus as a charter plank holder.  In October 2015, he was named as a member of the Steering Committee for the NASBLA Education Dashboard Project.  In 2016, he was elected  as President of the National Water Safety Congress and in March 2017 began serving as the NWSC’s Past-President.

In September 2012, Brown was named Assistant Boating Law Administrator for the State of Oklahoma.  In this role, he was responsible for the Recreational Boating Safety grant application, grant payments and budgets for the OHP Marine Law Enforcement Section and the OHP Marine Enforcement Section’s compliance with the RBS Program requirements.  In July 2013, he attended the NASBLA Boating Law Administrator Leadership Academy for BLA career development. On December 1, 2013, Brown was promoted to Lieutenant and named Oklahoma’s Boating Law Administrator.  January 1, 2014, he was appointed to NASBLA’s Recreational Boating Safety Professional Certification Commission which was later renamed the Certified Recreational Boating Professional (CRBP) Commission and continues to serve on the CRBP Commission. 

On June 20, 2014, he was named to the NASBLA Executive Board as a Member-At-Large and served as the Board Liaison for the Vessel Identification Registration and Titling (VIRT) Committee.  Brown was re-elected to the NASBLA Executive Board in October 2014 and again in September 2015 to serve full terms as a Member-At-Large and was the NASBLA Executive Board Liaison for the Education Committee.  

In September 2016, Lt. Brown was elected as Treasurer for the NASBLA Executive Board and named as the NASBLA Education Committee Executive Board liaison and the NASBLA Education Standards Panel (ESP) Executive Board liaison.  In October 2017, Brown was elected as the Vice-President for the NASBLA Executive Board and continued as Executive Board liaison for the NASBLA Education Committee and the NASBLA ESP. 

In May 2018, Lt. Brown was appointed to serve as a member of the National Boating Safety Advisory Council (NBSAC).  In June 2018, Lt. Brown was awarded a certificate as a Plank Owner of the Certified Recreational Boating Professional (CRBP) program and in September 2018, he was elected as the President of the NASBLA Executive Board.

Education

Oklahoma State University
Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States
Bachelor of Science - Business Marketing, 1984
Economics Minor
1982 To 1985

Southwestern Oklahoma State University
Weatherford, Oklahoma, United States
Business
1980 To 1981

Job History

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Marine Enforcement Section
Boating Law Administrator
Oklahoma City, OK, United States
December 2013 - present

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Marine Enforcement Section
Lieutenant
Oklahoma City, OK, United States
December 2013 - present

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Marine Enforcement Section
Trooper
Waurika Lake, OK, United States
July 1986 - December 2013