Dec. 26—CHIPPEWA FALLS — The city of Chippewa Falls is creating a YouTube channel, which will feature videos of highlights of events happening in town, but also can be used as a recruitment tool to fill vacant city positions.

Chippewa Falls Police Chief Matt Kelm asked the City Council for permission to create the channel.

"We have a strong Facebook presence," Kelm explained. "We have 29,743 followers. It's really kind of blown us away, how many followers we have, with the things we've tried to do, with being humorous or informative. We get information out to the public, and receive tips from the public."

However, the data has shown the Facebook followers are generally ages 25 to 65, and lean toward women. Kelm said he knows other social media reach other audiences, such as YouTube reaching people of younger ages.

"We thought it would be a great way to engage a different audience," he said. "The county is already utilizing their YouTube page for all the departments to use. We're looking at reaching more people. YouTube has a large audience, and a large reach."

Also, with YouTube being a free service, the only cost is in staff time, he added.

Mayor Greg Hoffman said he's supportive of the plan, saying it's an interesting idea.

"The more communications we have, the better," Hoffman said. "The county has more experience with this, and they are going to help us. I applaud the Police Department for taking this on."

Kelm said his department already has a lot of videos from their Facebook site ready to go.

"We'll begin migrating some of those videos over to YouTube," Kelm said.

Among those videos are some recruitment pieces.

"A lot of potential officers utilize YouTube," he said.

With the passage of the referendum in November, the Chippewa Falls Police Department will have 26 sworn officers for the first time in a decade; the city had previously cut positions through attrition during tight budgets. The referendum also included a competitive wage adjustment, which Kelm said will be a huge help in drawing quality candidates.

"We'll hire two out of this process," Kelm said — one for the newly-created position and one for a retirement coming up in February. Two other officers are still in training. Kelm noted the Chippewa Falls Fire and EMS Department also is hiring, as they received three new positions in the referendum.

"We wanted to let the public know that (wage adjustment)," Kelm said. "It was unique to Chippewa Falls, and I wanted to get that message out."

Kelm stressed the importance of going from 25 to 26 sworn officers.

"It allows us to maintain staffing levels when we have turnover or a medical absence, and not burn people out," he said.