Council approves two more police hires
Recruits could learn from those retiring in 2022
LANSDALE >> It’s official: the ranks of the Lansdale Police Department are now two stronger.
Council voted unanimously on June 16 to approve the hiring of two new police officers, ahead of possible retirements next year.
“What this does is, it really helps us be prepared for the next round of retirements. We know, in February of ‘22, we have some officers that are going to be eligible to retire,” said police Chief Mike Trail.
“We know they’ll eligible. Whether or not they’re going to retire, I can’t make a prediction on that, although I have indications that one will,” he said.
In March 2021 council approved two new police hires, one of which had previously worked as a parttime officer with the department, and said those filled vacancies from one resignation and a retirement. Those two new officers were the first hired after council approved a change in the town’s civil service rules in 2020, meant to widen the field of available candidates to include those from more diverse backgrounds by covering costs of police training.
In early June councilwoman Meg Currie Teoh, chair of council’s public safety committee, announced that the committee had continued talks about the department’s staffing levels since those hires, with an eye to those retirements next year and the pending census data revealing the town’s current population. The department currently operates with 24 uniformed officers and another one out on long-term disability, and two more would bring the department up to 26, while various calculations based on the town’s population could put the town as high as 26 to 28 officers recommended.
At the start of the June 16 meeting, Teoh read two motions that resulted from a council executive session, extending conditional offers of employment to Shannon Hauser and John Einreinhofer to be the two new hires.
“What we’ve done in the past is, we always have waited for (retiring officers) to go, and then we would start the hiring process. So that left the community understaffed for six to eight months,” Trail said.
“Now, we can ensure we have quality, trained people ready to go, when we have an officer retire,” he said.
Herbert added that the side-by-side time with the outgoing officers will be key.
“There’s an important element of being able to train under the people that are on the way out. That’s extremely important, to have that experience of working with dedicated, passionate officers who have worked in this community for decades,” he said.
“There’s no replacing that experience, so we need to use that, as we bring in new officers,” Herbert said.
More information on the new officers will be announced and discussed as they complete the hiring process, according to the chief. Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 8:45 p.m. on July 7 with the public safety committee at 6:15 p.m. that night; for more information visit www.Lansdale.org.