KY State Police Tackle Funding Cuts

Kentucky State Police are curtailing some operations and searching for more efficient ways to perform other duties to deal with high gas prices and a 2.4 percent cut in state funding.

Lt. David Jude told The Messenger-Inquirer the agency is still hiring and training new troopers and aren't reducing their ability to respond to emergency calls.

There are currently about 900 troopers on the force, roughly the same number the agency had in the 1970s. Jude says that number of troopers is adequate because technology has made patrol work more efficient.

Trooper Corey King, public information officer for the state police post in Henderson, said the budget means the post will likely not use a helicopter this year when doing sweeps for marijuana patches.