New class of mississippi highway patrol officers is hitting the highways this morning... cadet class 63 earned their badges at a graduation ceremony yesterday morning at the training academy in pearl... the class started back at the beginning of december.... it began with nearly 90 cadets.... but only 44 made it through the entire 20 week program...... they will now be assigned to their stations around the state... and even though new troopers were added ... the state highway patrol is still falling behind in total numbers.

Already applications are being taken for a new cadet class... next week the officers at "troop f" in new albany are holding a job fair for new candidates.

The job fair will be held on may 8th.... from 5-p-m to 8.

Applications will be taken on-site the mississippi has set the full highway patrol allotment at about 650 officers.... they are still more than 100- to 150 troopers short changes are happening right now in