Shenandoah City Council members approved a new patrol officer position during a Jan. 31 council meeting and filled two other open positions that were recently created.

The big picture

The approval of the new position is the last in a series of new hires from the Shenandoah Police Department's recent testing class.

According to the council agenda, during the 2023-24 budget workshop, the police department proposed the addition of two patrol officers.

The council approved one new position in the adopted budget and requested that the police chief bring back the request for a second officer once a vacant position was created from a recent promotion.

• The two open positions were filled Jan. 22
• During the same testing class, a third candidate was presented
• The third officer position was approved by Shenandoah City Council on Jan. 31

Police Chief Troye Dunlap said all three new hires are expected to complete training and start working for the city of Shenandoah in about four months.

The three new positions brings the department personnel total to 28.

What they are saying

Dunlap said with the additional manpower, the city has been able to bring a more active approach to the patrol officer position.

“When I first came to [Shenandoah] I had a philosophy and a vision of the department that I wanted to push for,” he said. “That plan was to reduce the amount of time that the officers had that was taking up their time doing things other than being out on the street.”

Dunlap said he wanted to reduce the time officers were spending doing activities such as conducting code enforcement in favor of active patrol and proactive police work such as looking for criminal activity.

“That’s been the vision all along, to try and get these officers where that’s what they focus on—proactive police work,” he said.