The Texas Department of Public Safety is ill-prepared to respond to terrorism and faces a critical shortage of officers, according to a scathing report released Friday.

Equally troubling, the report said, the agency's driver's license program fails to meet consumer needs and its vehicle inspection program lacks supervision to prevent the fraudulent issuance of annual stickers.

Those were among the highlights of a 114-page report by the Sunset Advisory Commission, a group of lawmakers that periodically reviews state agencies to determine if they're functioning properly.

The report concludes that DPS is still a necessary arm of government but needs a makeover. In particular, DPS should transfer nonpolice duties to civilian managers -- and perform those duties more like a business and less like a bureaucracy.

"We are tying up lots of troopers, and that talent could be served out on the roads, protecting the roads," said state Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, who serves on the sunset commission.

Brimer envisions remolding DPS into an agency that focuses on two areas: highway patrol, and intelligence work such as drug and gang interdiction.

Agency officials declined to discuss the report. "We are preparing our response, which is due to the sunset commission on June 9," spokeswoman Tela Mange said.

Slow to change

Mitchel Roth, a professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University who has written a history of DPS, said the department's organization has not changed significantly.

"Since it was created in 1935, there have been times of shifting of divisions and cutting back on staff or adding some, but nothing major," Roth said. "And anytime you have a large bureaucracy there are going to be holes."

Many of the criticisms, such as a lack of information sharing or preparedness for a large-scale disaster, are issues facing other large agencies, he said. Lack of centralized information processing is the Achilles' heel of American law enforcement, Roth said.

"In a time of terrorism, we should be as concerned about that as ever," Roth said. "But you still hear complaints about information sharing."

The agency's future is expected to be a hot topic during the 2009 legislative session, which begins in January in Austin.

Not sharing info

The report also identifies problems in DPS' chain of command. DPS divisions operate within different regional boundaries, causing communication and operating difficulties. Divisions have separate databases that can't easily share information, the report says.

Interviews with field officers revealed high frustration, the report stated. About 7 percent of commissioned-officer jobs are vacant, and DPS is having trouble filling them.

Better-paying jobs in the private sector, negativity due to racial-profiling incidents and the need for more military personnel are drawing away potential recruits, the report found.

San Antonio police Detective Rocky Dyer, a past president of the Texas Gang Investigators Association, said local jurisdictions would welcome as much help as they can get from state authorities on intelligence issues, such as statewide gangs.

Online: Read the report at www.sunset.state.tx.us. Click on "staff reports."

DPS by the numbers

249: new commissioned officers needed.

150: officers lost each year to retirement and attrition

7% vacancy rate among commissioned officers

Customer service

35% calls to the DPS customer service center that get answered. The average wait to speak with a person is 13.5 minutes, so most people hang up in frustration.

38,000: vehicle inspectors licensed by DPS, but not supervised to ensure they're complying with the law.

Source: Sunset Advisory Commission