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Austintown chief looks to hire officers
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Austintown Police Chief Bob Gavalier
By Elise Franco
AUSTINTOWN
Officers hired for the township’s auxiliary force could eventually be hired full time, the police chief said.
Chief Bob Gavalier said he’s in the process of hiring three officers to serve on the department’s auxiliary unit. Austintown has one auxiliary officer, and Gavalier said he would eventually like to staff the unit with six to eight officers.
He said now is a good time to staff the auxiliary force and get the officers trained and ready as possible full-time hires, because the department could have as many as six retirements over the next several years.
“One problem is that when we start the process of hiring full time, it takes nearly a year from the beginning to when we can get them on the road,” he said. “We wanted to prepare for these retirements in advance by having the reserve officers in place.”
The chief said hiring straight from the reserve force will avoid having holes in the department’s staff while they go through the long hiring process. It also gives them time to closely observe each officer while on the job.
“Then we can see how they’re doing and if they’re capable of coming on full time,” he said.
Gavalier said in the 1980s, the department staffed as many as 20 auxiliary officers, but the number dropped to just one officer about six years ago and has stayed that way.
“We started to get a lot of guys leaving for actual jobs at other departments,” he said. “The unit kind of dwindled down, and it was hard to find people who wanted to put in the free hours.”
Auxiliary officers in Austintown work on a volunteer basis and must complete 32 hours of service each month with the department, the chief said.
Gavalier said there are three candidates who have gone through the application process and are awaiting the results of their physicals.
He said they should be ready for training in about four weeks.
Each officer’s first set of uniforms — which includes a summer and winter pair of pants, shirt and jacket, and all equipment except for a gun — is paid for by the department, Gavalier said. He said it costs about $1,500 per reserve.
Trustee Jim Davis, who took office in 2010, said one of his campaign promises was to get more reserve officers in Austintown, so he’s glad the goal is coming to fruition.
“It is going to take some time, but I knew if I was patient, we could get it accomplished,” he said.
Davis is an auxiliary officer for Milton Township Police, used to work part-time for Milton and was a Mahoning County deputy sheriff for three years.
“It offers an opportunity for police officers to learn from experienced officers to get them accustomed to a very tough job,” he said. “It also puts an extra set of eyes on the street.”
Gavalier said having a larger auxiliary unit will also allow some patrolmen to have two officers per cruiser.
Davis said this will make the department safer and more efficient.
“You have that extra officer as a backup in a tough situation,” he said.
“It’s not only the added community safety, but added officer safety, to know there’s an extra person there to rely on.”