Mooresville Police Department looking to hire more officers
MOORESVILLE — The Mooresville Metropolitan Police Department is in the process of hiring new officers to fill two vacancies.
Police Chief Kerry Buckner confirmed the department has received more than 14 applications so far. It is a positive sign for the town as Buckner looks to hire a full-time police officer and a reserve police officer.
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The roles have been open for several months before Buckner stepped into his new role as police chief earlier this month. Buckner's swearing-in ceremony took place on Aug. 17.
The entire hiring process could take as long as two months, according to Buckner. Hiring new police officers tends to be more involved due to the extensive background checks that are conducted for each applicant and the large list of pre-employment requirements.
"It's going to take a minute to do the background and we're going to have to interview all those people. A lot of people may be excluded during the background phase depending on whether they have criminal priors," Buckner said. "Then after that, if they have ILEA (Indiana Law Enforcement Academy) already, then it would just be an interview. If they don't have ILEA, we have to give them the standard entry physical fitness test for ILEA to make sure they can pass it before we send them there. Because if they don't pass it, ILEA will send them home."
Buckner said the process is expedited for applicants who have already graduated from ILEA's Tier I Basic Course, meaning they are ready to immediately begin working if hired. Other applicants who have not gone through this basic training are still being considered for the roles and are encouraged to apply.
"Some of the officers that have applied already have ILEA so they're Tier I officers," Buckner said. "So that would mean that we could start them off right away and not have to put them through ILEA and not have their use for several months. Not that they're going to get preferential treatment but that is always a plus."
Finding a way to retain the current group of officers working in the department continues to be a major goal for the chief. At the same time, he also acknowledges that these open positions do need to be filled and that the department could lose more officers due to the competitive pay and benefits packages nearby departments are offering.
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"We estimate that it costs us about $60,000 per officer when they first come on and that is if they have to go to the academy. So to put $60,000 in an officer and have them leave is a huge hit to the town because that is money that has just gone and walked out the door," Buckner said. "So that is why keeping the salary competitive and keeping the benefits competitive is what we're trying to do to retain people. We have some officers who have a lot of experience and you can't buy experience. So if these guys leave, you get a lot of experience walking out the door. Then you have guys who only have a couple of years on them and they don't have anybody to learn from."
Applications can be found online at the Mooresville government's website. Applicants are encouraged to send completed applications to Chief@pd.mooresville.in.gov.
Applications will be accepted until Friday, Sept. 15 at 3 p.m.
This article originally appeared on The Reporter Times: Mooresville Police Department looking to hire more officers
