All told, correction officials said, 2.9 percent of 2,411 probationary officers tested positive for drugs in a 19-month period in 1986 and 1987.

Four probationary officers, with about one year on the job, have been suspended without pay.

Other members include assistant district attorneys, probationary officers, jail guards and civilian support staff.

He said the department was able to hire only 640 new probationary officers this month out of the more than 1,300 originally planned.

He was the second probationary officer to die this year.

He joined the State Bank of India 38 years back as a probationary officer in 1974.

Of those, 3,059 were probationary officers, who are subject to random urine tests as a condition of their first 18 months on the job.

Seven of the probationary officers tested positive and one refused to be tested.

Most earlier accusations of drug use involved probationary officers, he said, calling that a problem in the initial screening process.

The 20-year-old probationary officer was out on patrol yesterday.