NATCHEZ &8212; If you feel like you&8217;ve been seeing less of the men and women who patrol the highways in Mississippi and Louisiana, it&8217;s because you have been.

Until this year, money from their respective legislatures to hire and train new troopers has been hard to come by for both the Mississippi Highway Patrol and the Louisiana State Police.

Add to it those helping out in hurricane recovery efforts and those on military leave and you have two organizations about as excited about graduation day as your average high school senior.

At first blush, the Louisiana State Police looks to be running at near capacity, with only 20 vacancies in its 638-person patrol division.

But those numbers are deceptive, LSP Lt. Lawrence McLeary said.

&8220;There are a number of unfunded positions, that, if they were funded, our complement would be much higher,&8221; he said.

Vacant positions are reviewed by the Legislature, which then decides whether to provide funding for the positions in the coming year. This means the division&8217;s allotment of troopers fluctuates year to year, depending not on actual openings, but money to fill the actual openings.

The current level is enough to work with, said LSP official Sgt. Cathy Flinchum, but they could always use more.

&8220;Anytime you can get more help, it is welcomed,&8221; she said. &8220;We are doing the best we possibly can with the resources we have.&8221;

The LSP will have more resources in the future, but they&8217;ll have to wait a bit longer.

A cadet training course is scheduled to begin in March 2006 at the Louisiana State Police Academy. It was originally slated to get under way in September, but the hurricanes forced postponement.

The cost of a 40-person, 26-week course is $574,268, not including each cadet&8217;s $2,608 monthly salary or the equipment &8212; weapons, cars, armor &8212; needed upon graduation.

David Young, executive director of the Louisiana State Troopers Association, said the current trooper levels are adequate and that the problem is making sure there are future classes to make up for natural attrition in the ranks of the LSP.

&8220;In the future, as people retire, will we be able to fill those spots with new classes? That&8217;s going to be critical,&8221; he said.

As the head of a 501(c)(3) organization, Young lobbies the Legislature on behalf of the troopers. He said he&8217;s confident that new classes will be forthcoming.

&8220;The concern I&8217;ve heard from the legislators is that they don&8217;t want to see troop numbers dwindle, so they have the same concerns as the general public does.&8221;

Next door in Mississippi, the situation on the highways is much the same, although more troopers will be on the way sooner.

The MHP has an allotment of 650 troopers but is currently operating closer to 530, according to MHP public information officer Lt. Steve Gladney said.

He said the public is being well served by the troopers on the road, but that his group could use reinforcements.

&8220;It&8217;s one of those things, you have to do what you have to do &8230; we&8217;ve got to get some schools going and graduate some people,&8221; Gladney said.

Help is on the way.

The MHP will beef up its ranks with the spring graduation of its first cadet class since December 2003.

The money &8212; $3 million to train and equip the class of cadets &8212; came from an appropriation made by the legislature for the current fiscal year.

There are 53 of the original 79 cadets still in the academy. Capt. Tony Thornton, commandant of the academy, said the academic, physical and mental strain of the 20-week program lead him to anticipate several more dropouts before the March 23 graduation.

The academy is tough, Thornton said, because the job is tough.

&8220;Part of being a trooper is, at any given moment, you have to respond to an emergency for three to five days at a time,&8221; he said.

Because the decision to field a cadet class is made by the Legislature, Thornton doesn&8217;t think too much about future classes. But he&8217;s hopeful.

&8220;We&8217;re short-handed right now,&8221; he said.

&8220;I hope we get the funding to have another academy next year.&8221;