The State Highway Patrol today graduates the first of two overlapping classes of cadets in a move expected to increase the patrol's personnel.
The agency's personnel dwindled in recent years because the number of cadet classes failed to keep pace with the attrition rate. 81 cadets graduate today after 20 weeks of training. More cadets will graduate on April 5th. Those will bring staff levels to 16-hundred for the first time since 2006.