Dozens of framed class photographs display the thousands of graduates who went on to work in city police departments, sheriff's offices, the highway patrol, jails or some other branch of Utah law enforcement.

Maj. Rich Townsend, the academy's director, stops and points at a face in one fading photograph from 1974.

"That's me," he says, his finger on a younger man with darker hair.

These days, a lot more photographs are being added to the gallery. Enrollment at the academy is at an all-time high. The academy, which the police community refers to by its acronym, "POST," usually graduates five classes per year, each with 20 to 30 students. This year it's planning on eight classes, with some holding about 45 students.

The high enrollment, Townsend says, is stretching POST's resources, making it more difficult to train Utah's new generation of cops. It's also creating a ripple that's forcing some police forces to dig deeper into their own budgets.

Townsend expects some relief next year when POST moves into its new facility on the campus of Salt Lake Community College at 9750 S. 300 West. Utah businessman Larry Miller is spending $21 million to build a facility that's three times the space that POST has at the Utah Department of Public Safety complex in West Valley City. But Townsend expects the high enrollments to continue for the foreseeable future.

Meanwhile, POST's $2.5 million budget has remained stagnant. Unlike most other state agencies, the Legislature doesn't appropriate money to POST. The academy is financed with money raised from moving traffic citations and the police forces sponsoring cadets don't have to reimburse POST. And besides training cadets, POST provides training to working police officers and investigates cops accused of wrongdoing.

Townsend says it costs $160,000 to $200,000 to educate a class, including everything from instructors' salaries to bullets.

To accommodate the increase in cadets, POST has reduced the amount of ongoing training it offers working cops. State regulations require peace officers to take 40 hours of training per year to maintain their certification.

"If POST doesn't provide it, we have to find it somewhere else," says Heber City Police Chief Ed Rhoades, who is president of the Utah Chiefs of Police Association.

Rhoades says that might mean his police department will have to spend more of its money on training this year.

Among the factors pushing POST's high enrollment are state troopers' choosing to retire and police forces adding officers to keep up with population growth.

While it is normal for departments to experience turnover as officers retire or quit the profession, a change to state policies has some in law enforcement leaving in big numbers.

Currently, state employees taking retirement can receive one month of paid health insurance for eight hours of unused sick time. But the state is ending that benefit Jan. 1 and many state workers are choosing to retire before the change takes effect.

At the Utah Highway Patrol, 21 troopers have retired so far this year with more retirements expected. To replace the retirees, the patrol sends recruits to POST. Townsend says he expects one of next year's classes to have 25 to 30 highway patrol cadets. There are also sworn peace officers in the ranks of park rangers and other state divisions choosing to retire.

Police agencies also are adding officers as Utah's population grows and calls for service increase.

The Salt Lake City Police Department has nine new officers budgeted for this year. The St. George Police Department is adding four positions.

POST has four full-time instructors, and Townsend says it is relying more heavily on adjunct instructors who teach specialty topics such as law, first aid and defense tactics.

Lt. J. Scott Stephenson, a POST instructor who has taught firearms handling and defensive tactics to cadets, says the high enrollment and large classes make it more difficult to identify cadets having trouble.

"What it comes down to is it's a disservice to the cadets to have a class over 30," Stephenson says.

But Nick Berrie, a cadet training to join the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office as a constable, says he doesn't feel his numerous classmates are a detriment to his education. Berrie, 22, says instructors are willing to work with the cadets.

"The instructors are always there and always make it very clear that we just have to talk to them and they're always willing to stay after class," he says.

Townsend says he doesn't think the quality of the training has diminished with the high enrollment. But he wonders how long the big numbers will continue.

He's encouraging police forces to hire new officers from POST's five satellite campuses, which are spread throughout the state. Cadets at those sites pay for their own training, and when they graduate they are ready to begin work as a police officer.

"It's just really hard to gauge the future because we've never been through this," Townsend says.

ncarlisle@sltrib.com