Police swear in three new officers
New hires were approved in December
LANSDALE >> Three new officers are now officially on board with the Lansdale Borough Police Department, and a fourth could follow soon.
Throughout 2022 Mayor Garry Herbert. and police Chief Mike Trail made the case to council to consider increasing police staffing levels, citing a new staffing study that incorporated expected retirements of officers hired in the early 2000s, an increased borough population based on the 2020 census, and increased difficulty in finding and hiring officers over the past two-plus years due to nationwide trends in policing.
In December council approved a 2023 budget with a tax hike meant, in part, to fund those police hires, and at that time council also authorized conditional offers of employment to officer candidates Richard Schenk, James Gray, John Ruel, and Karly Harney.
Three of those four have now been sworn in, Herbert and Trail announced on Feb. 1, with all but Harney swearing their oaths with the mayor and chief between council committee meetings that night.
“They are in training now, field training. We hope to fast-track at least one (officer) through that, so you’re going to see another officer on the street,” Trail said.
In March, the chief added, he plans to give council and the public a preview of the department’s new traffic safety unit that the new additions will make possible, “and we hope to have that fully operational by April.” Herbert added that he and Trail had distributed a first draft of their annual report on the state of the police department, and a formal copy will be posted and presentation will be made in March.
Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Feb. 15 and March 15 and the public safety committee next meets at 7:30 p.m. on March 1, both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.