The Virginia State Police needs 600 more troopers, investigators and supervisors to meet the expanding demands of its mission, a department manpower study has found.

There are "critical issues in public safety that the department must have adequate staffing to address," states the internal report, a copy of which was obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch under a Freedom of Information Act request.

"These issues include highway safety, terrorism, Internet crimes against children, illegal firearms purchases, identity theft and sex offenders."

But given the state's economic and budgetary troubles, the chance of bringing manpower relief to the state's primary law enforcement agency -- responsible for patrolling 64,000 miles of state highways and supplementing the investigative staffs of many smaller local law-enforcement agencies -- might be as slim as avoiding rush-hour gridlock on Interstate 95.

A slumping economy has put the brakes on Virginia's revenue projections for its $77 billion 2009-2010 budget. On Friday all state agencies will submit three sets of revised budgets for their operations to Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, reflecting projected spending cuts of 5, 10 and 15 percent.

The hard choices that the state police and other state agencies face -- to make cuts where more spending might be needed -- demonstrate the impact that tough economic times will likely have on some basic services that Virginians have come to expect.

Between 1996 and 2006, sheriff's offices and local police departments statewide have increased the size of their forces roughly 31 percent, while the state police have increased 16 percent, the report says.

"Being a law-enforcement agency, we've never had all the resources we would like to have, but our folks are committed to public safety and understand the nature of the situation," said state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller. "We've done everything we can up to this point so we don't have to cut our services."

Clearly, however, the ability to deliver those services will be challenged, even in a $305 million budget.

The agency is currently authorized to have 2,004 sworn positions out of a total workforce of 2,805. The others are civilian employees. But the state budget did not provide funding for 108 of the sworn positions.

Citing tough economic times, the agency this month sent a letter to 63 new-trooper candidates that it is postponing, for a second time, its academy class, which was scheduled to begin Oct. 25. It is now scheduled for Feb. 25.

Delaying the class saves the agency $250,000 a month. But it also means it will be unable to fill 45 vacant positions for which it has funding -- a number that officials say will grow to 100 by September 2009 -- the time the February trooper class graduates.

Though the vacancies have saved money, they come with a cost. Recommendations issued by the manpower study, which would require additional personnel, will likely have to wait. Among them are adding special agents to the Joint Terrorism Task forces, creating a Homeland Security Division and dedicating more troopers to investigate illegal firearms purchases at gun shows. The study also recommends creating an Identity Theft Unit and expanding the sex-offender unit.

Low manpower levels have also raised concern about meeting the agency's primary day-to-day duty -- to keep the highways safe.

Highway traffic fatalities have risen in each of the past two years, with 963 recorded in 2006 and 1,014 in 2007. But they have declined so far this year. As of Wednesday, there had been 578 deaths this year, compared with 714 as of the same date last year.

The agency was unable to meet its targeted average response time of 18.5 minutes in each of the first three quarters of fiscal 2008, but met it in the final quarter, which ended June 30. The Governor's Performance Scorecard has set the same target for 2009 and 2010.

"We're doing everything we can under the current conditions to safeguard our highways and respond to the needs of our citizens," said Geller. "And we will continue to do so."

Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or jnolan@timesdispatch.com.