LANDIS — Thanks to recent hires, the Landis Police Department is closer to being fully staffed, prompting the town to unfreeze a position frozen earlier this year for budget reasons.

The decision to unfreeze the position was approved unanimously by the Landis Board of Aldermen, during its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday.

“We have been working diligently to build a more modern and stable police department so that we can be of better service to our community,” Interim Police Chief Kevin Young said in a letter to the board. “Accomplishing this goal requires many different moving parts including coverage, equipment, training recruitment and retention.”

The Landis Police Department currently has eight patrol positions allocated, which, Young said, ideally means that LPD would have four patrol positions per day when fully staffed.

“These positions would be broken down into a day-shift officer, mid-shift officer and a night-shift officer in addition to a supervisor,” Young said.

That level of coverage would permit community-driven activities, vacation time and sick leave for officers.

“It also provides coverage for the training needed to address common issues brought to us by citizens, such as speeding, which requires an officer to be trained, certified and recertified in the use of radar,” Young said.

During budget discussions earlier this year, the town opted to freeze a position within the department. At the time, staffing woes made the consideration an easy one.

“(It was) not a concern as we were understaffed and still had the minimum officers needed to provide 24-hour police coverage,” Young said.

As other agencies have ramped up retention efforts, LPD has had to get flexible with hiring.

“It has been difficult to recruit experienced officers to come to our agency as patrol officers,” Young said. “This has led to the hiring of individuals straight out of Basic Law Enforcement Training with no previous experience. While they are promising candidates, they require a substantial time investment for field training.”

Those hires occupy a patrol position during training but cannot contribute to coverage since they are with a training officer.

Landis currently has a candidate that has a conditional offer of employment. If that offer comes to fruition, the candidate must complete BLET, which will take up one of the department’s positions for approximately five to six months.

Another Landis officer is a member of the National Guard and received deployment orders for October.

“Legally and ethically, we are required to hold a spot for this officer so that upon his return, he has a position,” Young said.

Those two scenarios effectively reduce the LPD staff by two officer positions. As a workaround, Young requested that the frozen position be unfrozen and assigned to the deployed officer.

“This will not require a budget amendment as the officer’s deployment is for a year, during which time the town will not be paying out a salary,” Young said. “This would allow us to hire another officer in the meantime for the same cost that has already been factored into the budget.

“It’s basically having the position frozen without it being frozen.”

The extra spot would allow LPD to have a day-shift officer, night-shift officer and a supervisor each day, with a mid-shift officer to float between the two rotations and assist with coverage as needed.

“Once the officer returns from deployment and completes field training, we would then have the aforementioned four officer coverage,” Young said. “This would, in the long run, help achieve the staffing the board and police department originally desired. In the short term, it would allow the agency to still function in an improved state and continue in the direction needed to best serve the citizens of the community.”