With a large percentage of police officers serving their country in the military reserves and National Guard, local and state police are facing the prospect of losing officers to a growing conflict with Iraq.

Penn State Police Services Supervisor Clifford Lutz said, nationally, about 9 percent of police are also National Guard or reservists. However, Lutz said only two members of Penn State police -- or 5 percent of the force -- are enlisted. He said neither person is in a unit listed for deployment in the near future. But if that were to change, the department would be able to handle the loss of manpower, he said.

"It wouldn't be a real hardship for us," he said.

A call-up, Lutz said, would result in switching around some shift assignments but would cause no serious problems.

The Pennsylvania State Police have 45 troopers and five civilian workers activated, Jack Lewis, state police spokesman, said. The activations represent a relatively small number of the 4,100 troopers statewide, and Lewis said other troopers putting in overtime are covering the losses.

Most of the losses are spread throughout the state, so no single detachment has lost too many officers to continue operating effectively. Troop G, whose coverage area includes Centre County, has one trooper activated, Lewis said.

Lewis said the state police do not see the activations as a problem, especially considering the hiring of about 100 additional troopers last year.

"We're actually better off now than we were a year ago," he said.

However, 220 people employed by the state police are members of the National Guard or reserve units. Lewis said although a call-up of all reservists working for state police is unlikely, it would cause problems.

"If we lost 200 troopers at one shot, it would create some scheduling difficulties," Lewis said.

The State College Police Department has no one in the reserves, Lt. Tom Hart said.

But that has not always been the case. During the United Nation's peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, two officers with the department were activated and went to Germany, Hart said.

He added that during their service, officers' positions were frozen and both individuals and their families retained their benefits.

Although no longer a member of the reserves, Chris Weaver was one of those officers and still works for the State College police.

He said he was initially worried about being deployed, especially when it came to his family and his future in the department. But Weaver said his employer was very helpful throughout the situation.

The deployment, he said, actually turned out to be one of the better experiences of his life, despite his initial reservations about being called up.

"If you are in the reserves, you realize that that is a definite possibility," Weaver said.