Powell police were so shorthanded in August that, if one more staffer left, Chief Jim Rhea feared he would have to temporarily cut back the department’s 24/7 service or reach out to other agencies for help. But the department weathered that storm and, after months of intense recruiting, it’s on track to be back at full staff within a matter of weeks.

“That’s huge,” Rhea said, “because that hasn’t happened in a long time.”

Staffing was the top priority when the chief joined the department in June. Shortly before Rhea came on board, the agency had as many as nine vacancies among 25 authorized positions; by late summer, the department was still four officers short and had just three of seven dispatchers to cover round-the-clock service.

Some reinforcements arrived in October, however, with a flurry of hirings and promotions. Two new officers, Anthony Firkins and Nathan Bivens, were sworn in, veteran officers Reece McLain and Matt Koritnik were promoted to the rank of sergeant and dispatcher Melissa Ginest was named as the new communications supervisor.

At the Oct. 21 city council meeting, after Firkins and Bivens took their oaths, the council and an audience of fellow officers and their families offered a round of applause.

“We’re glad to have you,” Councilman Floyd Young told the new hires.

Rhea told the crowd that his team had been working for several months on “rebuilding, evolving and developing the Powell Police Department to the most professional police force as possible.”

“It starts with a high standard of excellence, and that starts with our staff,” he said.

Searching for hires

Two patrol positions and two dispatch positions currently remain open, but Rhea said he expects more hires soon, with some strong candidates amid the city’s testing process. After being short on officers since 2020, he said the department should be able to be fully staffed by the end of the month.

Getting to this point, he said, was the result of heavy recruiting and a streamlined process. That included putting applications all over town and working with Northwest College to recruit criminal justice students.

“The number one employee we want is someone who lives here, grew up here, goes to school here, knows the community here, knows the people in the community they’re going to be serving,” he said.

But Powell’s labor pool remains relatively small, so the chief also worked to spread the word across the region, state and country, with postings on a variety of job seeker websites.

All told, the effort is paying dividends, Rhea said, with the department receiving applications from local residents to “all over” — from the East Coast to the West Coast.

As part of the chief’s efforts, the department also made its application packet about a quarter of the size it once was and eliminated redundant background checks. He said that helped at least halve a hiring process that was taking months.

“You’ll get somebody that is putting out applications to like six places,” Rhea said, “and whoever gets that person processed through their system first is probably the one that is getting them employed, if they’re a quality candidate.”

Changing workforce, changing department

Another factor in overhauling the recruiting process was to match the changing workforce. While law enforcement jobs used to draw a slew of candidates committed to that career, Rhea said the department is now pulling from a labor pool that might be giving equal consideration to any similarly paying jobs — whether they’re at a retail store or restaurant. On top of that, a hire might only stay for a couple years, he said, and “that has to be OK.”

“Before you would try to find somebody that would stay for 20 years, and there’s not that employee anymore,” Rhea said.

The department has not lowered or changed any of its protocols or standards, which the chief said remain very high. However, rather than looking to hire a “rock star,” he said agencies need to recognize their responsibility to teach and train their employees to become stars.

Rhea has been working to boost training — not only to help prepare new hires, but to teach existing personnel to be leaders and help officers continue to develop.

It’s all a part of that “rebuilding, evolving and developing” of the department that the chief mentioned at the council meeting. He’s also reconstructing the department’s policy manual, plans to revisit the agency’s mission statement, has helped craft a new logo and is continuing to increase the agency’s engagement with the community. For instance, he said officers have been more routinely checking in with businesses on their security needs and emergency contacts. Additionally, each patrol officer has been assigned to one of Powell’s schools, with the goal of boosting positive interactions between police, students and staff.

And that’s just a start, as Rhea hopes to host community events to gather input and answer questions.

“We are asking the community to be involved and support their police department,” he said, “and we are going to be involved with them.”