HPD receives $125,000 grant to hire additional officer HPD receives $125,000 grant to hire additional officer HPD receives $125,000 grant to hire additional officer

Beaver Dam City Commission approves hiring two additional police officers

There will soon be more law enforcement on the streets of both Hartford and Beaver Dam as both departments are looking to hire additional police officers.

Through a grant awarded to them on Monday, HPD will be adding one additional officer.

The grant, COPS Hiring Program, is a competitive award program designed to provide funding directly to law enforcement agencies to hire additional law enforcement officers in an effort to increase their community policing capacity and crime prevention.

The grant, from the United States Department of Justice is for $125,000. There is a minimum 25 percent local cash match requirement over the period of the grant.

Hartford was among eight other agencies in Kentucky to be awarded this grant. Agencies in Allen County, Edmonson County, the City of Flemingsburg, the City of Frankfort, the City of Henderson, Lincoln County and the City of Morganfield were also awarded the grant.

With the hire of a new officer, the Hartford Police Department will have a force of seven.

“We will be at seven officers which we have never had seven officers at this agency so it is kind of a milestone for Hartford,” said HPD Chief Roger York.

York said the seventh officer will provide extra patrol and allow officers additional training time without a scheduling deficit.

“This seventh officer will allow for advancement with our current team to be specially trained. We recently add ed a new position here at Hartford Police Department, a detective spot,” York said. “So, we could possibly, in the near future after we receive this seventh officer, we can actually promote a detective and increase the investigative efforts as well.”

The department will be accepting applications for the position for a month at which time it will begin the interview and selection process.

“Our goal has shifted to be a lot more community involved,” York said. “The more officers we have the more officers we can get involved with community relations. This is just the start of what we are capable of and we look forward to moving forward with additional plans to improve our department.”

The Beaver Dam City Commission recently approved hiring two new police officers.

“We have always had a turnover in our department and we have really tried to work on our salary scale to get it up and try to alleviate that turnover,” said Beaver Dam Mayor Paul Sandefur. “We think we have gotten to that point now. The most we have ever had at one time is seven officers but we feel like with our budget and everything we are going to expand to eight.”

The hiring of two new officers will bring the current total to eight.

Sandefur said BDPD provides 24/7 coverage to the city and to do that, it takes some overtime with the current number of officers.

“We felt like going to eight there might be a little more initial costs but we feel like in the long run it won’t be that much. There of course will still be some overtime, of course along the way, but this should cut it down to where we don’t have a lot.”

The salary for the new officers will be paid from the city’s budget with some of that coming from the regulatory fees the city gets from the sale of alcohol.

Sandefur said the fees from the sale of alcohol can only be used toward police and safetyrelated expenditures.

The hiring process is underway.

“Our goal is to keep the 24/7 coverage, period. That is just something we don’t think we can afford to be without,” Sandefur said.

The City of Hartford was also approved for a grant to purchase six new body armor vests for the department.

In July, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman introduced a $15 million grant program aimed at equipping local law enforcement agencies in Kentucky with new body armor and additional gear.