Rushville, IL – Rushville hopes to hire more part-time police officers.
"Like a lot of small communities, Rushville has a hard time holding on to its part-time officers," says Mayor Scott Thompson.
Thompson says the department currently has six active part-time officers. But he says that is not enough. "We operate a 24-hour business and we do run dual shifts 3-days a week so we have coverage in town during the weekends," says Thompson. "We are mainly trying to fill that and vacation."
"We have a lot of experienced officers who want to take time off for vacation during the summer," Thompson says. "It's tough to find coverage for those days. We get stretched really thin."
Thompson says he'd like to hire at least 2 more part-time officers. Ideally, he'd like to have a total of 10-to-12 on the force. "That's probably over-reaching a little bit," says Thompson. "It's hard to find that perfect part-time officer that can work a variety of shifts."
Thompson says the city has a hard time keeping its part-time officers. He says the city pays to have them trained, but in many cases they go elsewhere for a full-time position. To prevent that from happening, the city recently started a new policy. Part-time officers must agree to stay with the department for two years.