The Jefferson Police Department is continuing to hire new officers.

In the past month, two officers have been hired, including Bohden Bigler and Jamie Brenner. That leaves one officer position open for Chief Mark Clouse to fill. He says, as per the 28E agreement with the Greene County Sheriff’s Office, deputies have had to cover eight open officer shifts so far, with the rest being covered by his current staff. Clouse points out he’s thankful to have the 28E agreement in place so that his officers don’t feel burned out.

“When you run short like that in years past, that’s what happens. It’s just non-stop work to keep everything covered, and 24/7 coverage. Yeah, you can wear people out, you can burn people out. Obviously, I didn’t want to do that. So that’s where that 28E agreement mainly came from with the Sheriff’s Office.”

Clouse appreciates his officers’ work to cover most of the other open shifts as they continue the hiring process.

“I want to commend my staff. They covered a lot of shifts, and there was a lot of overtime. They gave up away from families to make sure that we had people on the streets and not burdening the Sheriff’s Office any further than we needed to.”

Clouse feels good about where he is at with his current officers and looks forward to hiring one more person to be at full staff with eight officers.