For the first time in roughly a decade, the Owensboro Police Department is fully staffed with 111 members. Police Chief Art Ealum said the staff increase is likely due to the influx of new hires enrolling in the basic training academy at OPD.
“This is the best that we’ve been in a long time with job staffing. I’m sure our academy has a lot to do with that because people recognize that they can go to the academy here and be at home with their families at night,” Ealum said.
Tuesday’s City Commission meeting concluded with the hiring of six new OPD officers, all of which will start the academy shortly.
Though the department is technically at full staff now, Ealum said they still must wait about 8 months for this batch of new hires to work independently.
“They have the academy for 23 weeks and then a 16-week PTO program ride with a veteran officer that trains them. So it may be 8-9 months before they’ll actually be out there taking some of that load off [of other officers],” Ealum said.
Ealum said the department still anticipates a few retirements before the summer — two officers retired Tuesday — and said transfers could affect staff numbers.
“We’ve got some more people that plan to retire; we’re always dealing with that. Then you have officers who are fulfilling their 3-year contract with the City, and some want to move on to other states, agencies, or what have you,” he said. “So we’re always going to be chasing our tails.”
