The Kentucky State Police is in need of more troopers, Commissioner Rick Sanders said.Sanders wants to increase the force to 1,100 troopers. Right now, the number is about 880."We start another cadet class in August of 67 cadets, and we're anxious to get those out," Sanders said. On Friday, 42 cadets graduated at a ceremony in Frankfort. Sanders said many of them will be on the road as early as the weekend."We're extremely shorthanded right now," Sanders said. "We're taking people off the road to make them detectives or accident reconstructionists, so this helps fill some of those voids."In recent months, the KSP removed a required two years of college to apply to become a trooper."What we're trying to do is open that funnel at the top so more people can apply," Sanders said. "That doesn't mean we're going to take everyone that applies."But Sanders said he has already learned that a college education does not equate to a better trooper. Of the 42 cadets who graduated Friday, the valedictorian had not attended college prior to joining the KSP."I would rather have somebody with character and integrity, take them off a farm truck in western Kentucky or a coal mine in eastern Kentucky, and then we can help educate them," Sanders said.A handful of Friday's cadets live in the WLKY viewing area, including Trooper Zach Napier and Trooper Cameron Wright. "I always wanted to do something in law enforcement," Wright said. "I know that they're the best in the state, and arguably in the country, so I figured why not join the best.""You see stuff happen to people all the time, and you can't do anything about it," Napier said. "But now I can."While most of the cadets are from Kentucky, four came from out-of-state, including Georgia, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. "It's a tough time to be in law enforcement, so we especially thank them for agreeing to be public servants," Sanders said.