The Pennsylvania State Police don't advertise the number of troopers on the road at any given time. In some counties, doing that might be an invitation to stepped-up criminal activity, because of the few troopers who actually are on patrol.

Gov. Ed Rendell has an opportunity to beef up the state police ranks under the 2004-05 budget he signed into law on Sunday, but shortly after affixing his signature to the budget document, the governor made the troubling announcement that he was putting money budgeted for the addition of 90 troopers on hold. He said the money could be frozen or used for technology enhancements for the state police.

Legislators on both sides of the political aisle worked to include money for additional troopers in the new state spending package. Now that the grueling task of budget preparation is over, the governor shouldn't undermine the spirit of what was accomplished, especially when the issue doesn't revolve around wasteful spending.

From the first days of his gubernatorial campaigning, Rendell pledged to cut waste within the state bureaucracy; the $637 million end-of-year budget surplus for 2003-04 would seem to indicate that his efforts to save money have achieved success.

However, the state police manpower issue doesn't revolve around wasteful spending. The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics ranks Pennsylvania last compared with similar-sized states in the number of full-time law enforcement personnel. The Keystone State has fewer law enforcement personnel per capita than any of its surrounding states, with the exception of West Virginia.

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the nonpartisan state Legislative Budget and Finance Committee issued a report stating that Pennsylvania needed 370 additional troopers to ensure the safety of the commonwealth's 12 million residents - about five additional troopers for each of the state's 67 counties.

Even the addition of 90 troopers wouldn't come close to bringing the state police department to its optimum level of manpower strength.

The Rendell administration inherited the state police manpower challenges currently in play. He doesn't deserve criticism for what has evolved over several administrations.

But Rendell has the opportunity to strengthen the state police, as a result of state-police-targeted money included in the new budget. He shouldn't bungle the opportunity in the way he seems to have chosen to do.

Technology upgrades to which the governor referred on Sunday might also be needed, but technology improvements can't take the place of an adequate contingent of troopers manning the state police ranks.

Technology can't get a drunk driver off the road, discourage speeding, confront other forms of reckless driving and turn suspicions about a certain vehicle into a major drug bust.

Pennsylvania's state police are responsible for patrolling 44,000 miles of highway and providing law enforcement coverage in 1,800 local municipalities. While the state police can operate effectively below the best-case-scenario manpower level - businesses and industries in the private sector do that every day - state residents are being shortchanged on traffic enforcement and efforts to curb criminal activity when manpower must be stretched too thin.

Those who monitor police manpower on the national level say the Pennsylvania State Police are indeed too shorthanded.

Rendell should have looked more closely at all of the facts and observations before Sunday's hasty announcement. Why the governor didn't push hard during budget negotiations for the kind of police technology funding that he currently is promoting via the re-allocation of the additional-troopers money must be pondered with a degree of puzzlement.

Rendell realizes the importance of Pennsylvania being a safe state, as well as a prosperous state, but his decision regarding the state police money doesn't depict that realization.

Rendell should allow the hiring of the 90 additional troopers to move ahead. There are not many parts of the state budget that actually deal with protecting state residents and saving lives, but this is one of them.

The technological advancements he advocates can be accomplished with savings from his other efforts to control spending.

- J.R.K.