| Cuts Thin Trooper Ranks |
| (Columbia-AP) - Three years of budget cuts
have thinned the ranks of state troopers and other state law
enforcement officers. There are 812 troopers now, down from 970 five years ago as the state's largest law enforcement agency loses its force to better paying jobs elsewhere. Once considered a stable, high-paying job that local police wanted, the patrol now loses troopers to local forces or federal agencies that pay more. For instance, four Horry County troopers left for jobs at a Las Vegas department where they could earn 45-thousand dollars a year. That is nearly twice the starting pay for a South Carolina trooper. |