Circleville – Circleville Police Department was already struggling with minimum staffing before the termination of last week’s K9 officer.
According to Chief Baer during a Circleville Council meeting recently they are short 8 officers from a fully staffed department of 25. With the termination of one last week that grows to 9. That number includes investigations and others.
Chief Baer said during the council meeting that they were struggling to keep minimum staffing on the roads which is 2-3 officers. He told Circleville Council that they are able to keep up by using overtime.
In his report, since May there have been 2372 calls to 911 in the city. Baer said that through the summer months, those calls are expected to go up until fall.
This month Circleville did hire a new employee, but he will take time before he is on his own.
Currently, the Chief is working on a police Cadet force that would allow the Police department to hire off the street and send candidates through the police academy with an agreement to stay 3 years. The schooling for each employee would be around 7,700 dollars.
