After almost one year, the Jefferson Police Department gained a new officer that brings them closer to being fully staffed.

At the April 23rd Jefferson City Council meeting, Noah Luther was hired to be the seventh officer for a staff of eight. The police department also received additional good news as Officer Zach Bardon graduated the 16-week course from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy on April 19th and has returned as a fully certified officer. 

Police Chief Mark Clouse tells Raccoon Valley Radio that the struggle continues to find quality individuals who want to be in law enforcement. The obstacles have been a low number of applicants, officers leaving for bigger departments or other job opportunities and law enforcement careers aren’t in the positive light sometimes. 

Another challenge Clouse sees is when candidates have been selected after their initial interview, they go through a “testing day” where the candidates must be a physical/agility, psychological, and a post test of basic high school level skills with math, grammar, and spelling.

“You have to have a passing physical/agility to be hired by the police department, first of all, but then at some point, within the first year, you have to attend the academy (and) you’ll have to meet that standard again to get into the academy. They add a percentage that you have to accomplish during the academy and then at the end when you graduate. So it’s not like you just fight your way through this one time and you’re done with it, you have to do it several times throughout that first year.”        

Clouse adds they are continuing to advertise their final open officer position and hopes to have their eighth and final officer hired soon. Luther, the newest officer, started the following day after the Council approved his hire and has a starting salary of $58,583.