Council approves new hires

Police officers still have testing to complete, targeting early June start

LANSDALE » Three new officers could be joining the Lansdale Police Department as soon as early June.

Borough council voted unanimously Wednesday night to extend three conditional offers of employment, to bring the department back up to full strength.

“All of them are experienced police officers, with at least two years on the job, and one of them has nine years,” said Police Chief Mike Trail. “Two of them are currently working as police officers in Montgomery County, and one is working as a police officer for SEPTA.”

The department has been below full strength since the end of March 2017, when longtime Po-

lice Chief Robert McDyre retired after more than three decades with the department. Former Lt. Alex Kromdyk followed in July and former Sgt. Dean Miller in September. New hires were put on hold while an outside search firm recommended Trail be named chief, which was finalized in March 2018, and Trail subsequently recommended and council approved a promotion of then-Sgt. Ryan Devlin to lieutenant in April.

Council’s Public Safety committee recommended earlier this month that council approve the three

new hires, which will bring the police department back up to its budgeted staff level of 24 officers, and council made three motions, one for each officer, after a roughly 20-minute long executive session Wednesday night.

“We made conditional officers for three individuals. Upon completion of psychological evaluations and medical evaluations, they will then, for all intents and purposes, be hired by the borough, and begin their probationary period,” Trail said.

“We have an anticipated start date for the three hires of June 4, so obviously we’ve got a lot to do in a short period of time,” he said.

Trail thanked borough council for approving the

conditional offers of employment, and the borough’s civil service commission for vetting the list of officer candidates. He said once their testing is complete, the officers will be on a probationary period for one year, and able to help with department initiatives like a new outreach push and enforcement of quality of life concerns like complaints about fireworks being set off in town.

“It’s going to be very nice to have 24 back, and be able to move forward,” Trail said.

PHOTO BY GEOFF PATTON A sign next to West Main Street in Lansdale near two exisitng signs in adjacent Towamencin Township welcomes motorists and pedestrians to the borough.