By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
The St. Joseph Police Department is nearly at full staff.
After struggling for years to fill vacancies, the police department now has fewer than 10 vacancies.
St. Joseph Police Chief, Paul Luster, says there has been fewer than 1o vacancies for the past six months.
“You always have attrition,” Luster tells KFEQmmunity. “We’re always putting people through the academy which runs twice a year. But I always say that it’s a lot easier to get stuff done and do meaningful work when you have the staff to do it.”
Luster says the department has seven new hires undergoing training at the Law Enforcement Academy on the Missouri Western State University campus.
Luster says vacancies have fallen consistently since exceeding 30 two years ago.
“I think really a result of a lot of hard work and really rethinking how we hire,” Luster says. “It’s a team effort. We’ve streamlined the process, but it’s something I think we talk about every day with my team there.”
Luster says the department is pleased with its progress, but doesn’t want to just deal in numbers.
“We really put an emphasis on a cultural fit and a community fit,” Luster says. “Do they fit the culture we’re building and do they fit to the community? So, we’re not just hiring to fill vacancies. We really want to make sure we’re getting, what I call getting the right people on the bus at the right time.”
Luster says that cultural and community fit is ever important.
“So we want to make sure we’re confident and comfortable with that person and their fit into policing the St. Joseph community and fitting into our culture, the police department, before we move forward.”
The St. Joseph Police Department is budgeted for 138 commissioned officers.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ