Part-time police officer switched to full-time position
LANSDALE » A part-time police officer is moving up the ranks, as the Lansdale Police Department starts to fill the vacancies left by a series of retirements this summer.
Borough council voted unanimously Wednesday to extend an offer of employment to John Albany, a current part-time police officer who will now move to fulltime duties.
“Getting one officer now will definitely help us recover our footprint on the street, and make sure we have adequate staff to do the patrols necessary for our consumers, the residents of the borough,” acting police Chief Mike Trail said.
Robert McDyre, the department’s longtime chief, retired in March, police Lt. Alex Kromdyk retired at the end of July, and Sgt. Dean Miller will retire in September — three officers with a combined total of nearly 90 years with the department. In late July Trail was named the department’s acting chief, and a search firm has been hired to help identify the next chief.
Trail said Wednesday that with another officer out due to an injury and his own shift to an administrative role, the effective manpower of the department had been down to 19 fulltime officers, from its authorized level of 24.
“I’m running the administration, and I want to move one officer inside with me to assist in that capacity. I’m anticipating another ‘officer-in-charge’ position to cover the patrols from Sgt. Miller, and that’s how we will run through the transition, until a permanent chief is hired,” Trail said.
Albany has been working for the department as a part-time officer since March and has prior law enforcement experience as an officer in Delaware County, according to the acting chief.
“He’s had very good performance ratings since he’s been here, he’s successfully completed our field training program, and we’re very happy to have him,” Trail said.
Council voted to extend the offer of employment to Albany after a brief executive session at the start of Wednesday’s meeting. Trail said a starting full-time officer’s salary is in the area of $56,000, and a transition from part to full time would require minimal administrative work.
“Because he was a parttime officer, he wasn’t in the calculus of our full-time staffing levels, so this is really just replacing one of the four people we’re down right now,” Trail said. “The time to promote again is probably going to be closer to when the new chief will be here. So in deference to that individual, whoever it may be, we’re just going to run at the level we’re at right now.”
Councilman Jack Hansen said he thought the new hire was “a step in the right direction to get our force back to full force, so that we can protect all of our officers as well as the public.”
Lansdale Borough Council and its various committees next meet at 7 p.m. on Sept. 6 at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine ST. For more information or meeting agendas and materials visit www.Lansdale.org or follow @LansdalePA on Twitter.