The state Highway Patrol has hired a firm that has reviewed police departments from Los Angeles to Delaware to evaluate the patrol's hiring, training and promotion of troopers.

Kroll consultants will be paid $98,000 to conduct a "formal, in-depth" review, according to a news release from the N.C. Department of Crime Control and Public Safety, Dan Kane reports. The department oversees the 1,800 member force.

Gov. Mike Easley called for a review after several cases of trooper misbehavior over a two-month period.

One of those cases exposed roughly two dozen instances where troopers were involved in affairs either on or off-duty over the past nine years, and has raised questions of disparate treatment.

"We welcome a thorough internal review by an agency that is experienced and respected in the law enforcement and corporate communities," said patrol Commander Col. Fletcher Clay.

New York-based Kroll has assigned a six-person team of law enforcement and government efficiency experts to conduct a four-month review of the force.

The team will meet with patrol leaders, sworn officers and civilian staff, as well as review hiring and turnover, media coverage, allegations of negligent supervision, ethics and supervisory training.

Richard Moore has been a hard person to reach of late.

Dome called the state treasurer and Democratic gubernatorial candidate for comment on the latest scandal for the state Highway Patrol — trooper sex romps that did not result in the troopers' dismissal from the force, Dan Kane reports.

At least two of cases involving troopers having on-duty sex — ones cited in an adminstrative law judge's recent decision to reinstate a former trooper who admitted having sex in a patrol car and at a patrol office — occurred while Moore led the N.C. Department of Public Safety and Crime Control, which oversees the state Highway Patrol.

One of those troopers was found to have made death threats against his ex-wife, the decision said.

On Saturday, Moore's spokeswoman, Sara Lang, said he was unavailable to talk about the scandal over the weekend. So Dome asked again Monday, shortly after she issued a release about his roundtable that day with corporate officials to talk about curbing global warming.

Her reply: "The Treasurer is not available today."