KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri lawmaker is dropping efforts to dismantle the merger of the state’s road and highway patrol.

The Kansas City Star reports that Rep. Diane Franklin, a Camdenton Republican, made the announcement Thursday, noting that crucial changes are already being made. She said the demerger legislation she filed in January has led the Missouri Highway Patrol to assign more troopers to the water and to beef up efforts to identify boaters who are intoxicated.

The changes will go into effect at the Lake of the Ozarks in the next two months, before prime boating season.

The merger has faced questions, in part because a handcuffed Iowa man in patrol custody tumbled into the Lake of the Ozarks on May, 31, 2014, wearing an improperly secured life vest and drowned.