newjerseynewsroom.com

BY TOM HESTER SR.

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

The State Police is barely keeping its head above water when it comes to manpower needs, both the state attorney general and a legislative leader agreed Wednesday.

In the next few years, as many as 1,000 of the 3,015 troopers will be eligible to retire and the financially-strapped state government will not have the money to complete training between 100 and 200 rookies until July 2012, Attorney General Paula T. Dow told the Assembly Budget Committee.

Dow said she and State Police superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes are working on a plan to confront the potential manpower shortage. "I believe we do have a business plan to address this issue and we do so at a time when the fiscal reality is dark and stark.''

Dow said a bright spot in the fiscal darkness is that a review of the retirement situation found that many of the troopers nearing 25 years on the job do not plan to retire when initially eligible.

Assemblyman Louis Greenwald (D-Camden) the committee chairman, raised the manpower issue, noting there is only $500,000 in the Department of Law and Public Safety's $538 million 2010-11 budget for recruiting additional troopers. The budget is down 7 percent from 2009-10, down $40.6 million. The department plans to save $5.4 million be delaying actual hiring and training of rookie troopers until 2012.

"I'm am fearful,‘' Greenwald said. "In Colonel Fuentes' own words, we need a minimum of 3,100 troopers to keep our heads above water and at 3,015 we are using a straw.''

Dow said the $500,000 will be used to recruit potential troopers and weed out those who cannot pass the physical or written tests in an effort to have those who qualify ready for training in July 2012.

Dow said part of the manpower plan calls for the transfer of some troopers from administrative to positions where they would deal with the public. The attorney general said that through a re-allocation of troopers, the State Police hope to reduce overtime by $2 million. She also said another part of the plan calls for the State Police to tell local police they will have to rely less on the agency's support such as the use of its canine corps.

Dow said the State Police will get five new helicopters for its Medevac unit in 2011 and will take delivery of two of them in February.

"These helicopters are an essential resource, as they are used for emergency medical transport in severe trauma cases, for search-and-rescue efforts, and for homeland security-related missions,'' she said.

The agency will also get 145 new patrol cars and 600 cars will be outfitted with new digital recording equipment to monitor trooper actions.

"With our current enlisted troop strength at 3,015 and all of these vital expenditures and acquisitions preserved for the coming year, I believe the State Police organization remains well-position to carry out its mission without any erosion of quality,'' Dow told the committee.

Dow said another problem facing her department is a shortage of deputy attorney generals to handle legal matters and prosecute alleged criminals. In 2006, the department had 594 deputies, now it has 468.

"The Division of law has approximately 40,000 legal matters pending at any given time, including 15,000 cases that are in actual litigation,'' she said. "So, as you can see, the division's resources are taxed.''