GULFPORT, Miss. A roadside inspection unit of the type bus and truck operators love to hate has been disbanded.

In this case, the unit was a commercial vehicle inspection team composed of county mounties, operating along Interstate 10 in south Mississippi.

New Sheriff Melvin Brisolara of Harrison County disbanded the motor-carrier enforcement unit and moved the five deputies who had been conducting commercial vehicle inspections to his patrol division.

By doing away with the inspection unit, Brisolara was making good on a campaign promise that was shared by nearly all his nine opponents.

"I've put those officers in the field on patrol to better protect our rural areas," Brisolara said. "Patrol had a staff shortage but now we're averaging 14 patrol officers a shift. The positions were already in the budget but were vacant."

Harrison County became part of a pilot project in 2000 to use deputy sheriffs to enforce federal motor-carrier laws. A former sheriff launched the project with grants from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. The sheriff's department received more than $800,000 for equipment and salaries.

At the time, state legislators had a cap on Mississippi Department of Transportation inspectors - 32 statewide - and the Mississippi Highway Patrol was understaffed.

"MDOT has an enforcement division and it can take care of it," Brisolara said. "MHP can help."

In the project's first 18 months, Harrison County deputies were cited for removing nearly three times more unsafe commercial drivers from the highway than the national average.

Opposition to the team, however, was so strong that most of the 10 candidates for sheriff and the five who vied in the general election pledged to disband the unit if elected.

They agreed that deputies need to patrol county roads instead of devoting time to pulling over commercial vehicles for inspections for federal motor-carrier standards.

The motor-carrier team made its share of high-profile drug arrests, however, including the seizure in 2004 of 38 pounds of cocaine found in a suitcase on a charter bus traveling from Houston to Atlanta.