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Warren PD adds 2 officers
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Two new Warren police officers were sworn to duty Wednesday at city hall, replacing three officers who retired this year.
The new officers are Zachary Jones, 31, who has worked part-time the past two years for the Columbiana Police Department, and Adam Huffman, 25, who has worked as a corrections officer with the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office the past three years.
Jones also worked full-time for seven years in the construction field.
Police Chief Tim Bowers said the two received rigorous screening and will begin their duties Monday.
The civil-service list they were chosen from was posted in June; the screening process has been happening since, Bowers said.
With the two hires, the police department has 65 officers, about the same as it had at the start of 2012.
The department had 81 officers before a recession-induced layoff in January 2009, Bowers said.
Mayor Doug Franklin, who participated in the swearing-in ceremony, said his administration is working on the city’s 2013 budget, “and we hope to add more officers next year.”
Because of an earlier agreement with one of the police unions, the police department will not be replacing some of the management employees who have retired this year, so the new officers coming on board will increase the number of road officers, Franklin said.
Kenneth Wareham of Warren, grandfather of Huffman, said a grandparent wouldn’t normally “push” a grandchild to become a police officer because of the danger, but Huffman has been interested in police and military work since he was a boy.
“He certainly will be a dedicated officer,” Wareham said. “He does everything with gusto and wants to do it the right way. Needless to say, his grandmother, his mother and his grandfather are very proud of him.”
Huffman is a graduate of Warren G. Harding High School and the University of Akron.
Meanwhile, an internal-affairs investigation was opened when veteran Warren patrolman Jeff Miller was arrested on a drunken-driving charge last September, Bowers said.
Miller, 48, was convicted of reckless operation and sentenced to alcohol treatment and other conditions.
He was arrested last week, however, and spent five days in the Mahoning County jail for failing to complete certain provisions of his probation. Miller remains on active duty.
Bowers said the internal-affairs investigation is not complete because the court case is not complete. When it is, disciplinary action against Miller is possible, Bowers said.