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YPD swears in four new officers
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The number of new police officers in the city in 2015 has grown to 11 with the addition of four new officers.
The swearing-in of the officers also is allowing Chief Robin Lees to finally be able to start his new Community Policing Unit, which begins June 29, the chief said shortly after Mayor John A. McNally administered the oath Friday in city council chambers.
Those sworn in were Matthew Hassey, 31, of Boardman; Anthony Trimble, 25, of Youngstown; James Cline, 27, of Niles; and Kristina Vaughan, 24, of Braceville.
The four began in-service training immediately after they were sworn in and will begin more intensive training next week, including crisis-intervention training with veteran officers, so they can learn techniques on how to defuse situations when dealing with mentally ill people and others who are combative.
Lees said the CIT training is important and has been catching on across the country as departments grapple with the issue. He said he wants the new officers to receive the training with the veteran officers, so that speeded up the hiring process for the latest four hires.
Hassey also is an officer for Beaver Township and a Youngstown native, growing up on the South Side.
“I wanted to come back to the city I was born in,” Hassey said.
Trimble worked for the Lowellville Police Department before being hired in Youngstown.
“I wanted to be a police officer in the city I live in,” Trimble said.
Cline is a Marine Corps veteran who served two tours of duty in Afghanistan in an infantry unit and also is a graduate of the police academy at Youngstown State University. He said he likes the city where he attended college, which is why he applied for a job in Youngstown.
Vaughan said she also was attracted to serving in Youngstown because she grew up in Struthers and is familiar with the city.
The department also added four officers in January and three in March.
Lees said he wanted to add new officers to offset a wave of retirements in the department and also so there would be enough officers in the patrol division to take the place of officers who are being assigned to the new Community Policing Unit.
In that unit, one officer will be assigned to each of the city’s seven wards and instead of patrolling a beat, they will be in that ward for their entire shift so they can concentrate on issues specific to each particular ward.
The officers hired Friday will undergo several weeks of training with a veteran officer on each of the department’s three turns before they are deemed ready to patrol a beat. The process usually takes between four and six months, Lees said.