While officials agree on the need for additional police officers, whether they should be full- or part-time is being debated.
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The Orland Hills Police and Fire Commission has given Police Chief Richard Schryver the green light to interview one man and one woman for part-time positions. The budget will be reviewed to determine whether hiring future full-time officers is feasible, commissioners said.
The two new officers would replace two part-timers, one man who resigned and one woman who has been given a desk job because she failed a weapon skills test needed to requalify her for street duty.
The Village Board could vote on the hirings Wednesday.
The department has 13 full-time officers, 11 part-time and eight part-time community service officers, who lack arrest powers.
“I’d rather see a full-time police officer than two part-time,” Trustee Marty McGill said at a recent meeting. “I still say full-time is more devoted than any part-timers can get.”
“That’s OK if there’s enough to cover this in the budget,” Village Administrator John Daly said.
McGill later said he did not mean all part-time employees are poor workers.
Daly said that Orland Hills once had 22 part-time officers.
“We need a greater number of part-timers because they are not available at all times,” Daly said. “We try to build up enough part-timers to call upon.”
Schryver said part-timers are necessary to fill in the gaps when full-timers are taking classes and training for such things as the DARE anti-drug program.