Commissioners believe the problem exists in the way the agency is run.

Some commissioners at Tuesday's Sunset Advisory Commission hearing regarding the Department of Public Safety believe the agency needs a major overhaul.

They said the problem isn't with the troopers in the trenches, but rather, those at the top.

"The buck stops here in Austin," Sunset Advisory Commissioner and State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, said. "I can't go anywhere in my district or in the State of Texas without being questioned about what's going on at DPS. And, they're not asking about their local troopers."

She and other commissioners believe the problem exists in the way the agency's run -- from top to bottom -- with an outdated management style.

"There's certainly a culture at the department that's based on history and needs to be more sensitive to contemporary times," Public Safety Commission chair Alan Polunsky said.

The Public Safety Commission oversees the DPS.

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	DPS Several commissioners commented about the outdated management style of the DPS.

The problems aren't just with management. Other issues include: outmoded information technology, an operating structure in desperate need of repairs, disagreements on trooper promotions and wage issues.

"The efficiency of the DPS is something that we here on this commission, we are very concerned about. It seems somewhere we have a disconnect," Sunset Advisory Commissioner and State Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, said.

"I think this commission has the duty to overhaul this agency. I don't think it's modernized, I think it's operating at where it was 20, 30, 40 years ago," Kolkhorst said.

"This is an initiative that I have begun, so if I'm unsuccessful in accomplishing the initiative that I've launched, then I will have failed and the buck will certainly stop with me," Polunsky said.

Polunsky has been the chair of the Public Safety Commission for only two months. He wants to make some radical changes.

Polunsky wants to get much of the Sunset Advisory Commission's recommendations in place in nine to 12 months.