Seven patrol officers will hit the streets of Addison in the next several weeks as the newest members of the village’s police force.
The recruits took their oaths Monday night during a ceremony before the Village Board, marking the end of an extensive police hiring process that began in April.
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The newly hired officers are into their fifth week of an 11-week basic training program at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. Once the program is completed, the newcomers will take to Addison’s streets, but not by themselves.
A field-training officer will be assigned to work with each officer during a three-month period, “where an officer helps adapt their training into the real world,” said Police Chief Melvin Mack. Another month of close supervision will follow that period.
Three of the officers were hired as a result of a $375,000 grant the village received from the federal Department of Justice through the Community Oriented Policing Services Universal Hiring Program. Four officers were hired to fill positions that had been vacated by officers who had either retired or resigned.
The hirings bring the number of sworn patrol officers in the department to 50, Mack said.