Libby police force battles staff shortage
With Libby chief of police Clay Coker gone for several weeks to the FBI Academy and officer Brent Teske taking a leave of absence to work in security in Afghanistan, the local police department found itself facing a staff shortage.
However, Libby mayor Tony Berget said that the city has hired one officer and is down to one vacancy.
“We wanted to make sure we did a background check,” Berget said. “We had some questions about applicants and Jim Smith, our acting chief of police, he stepped up to the plate and took care of some of the fears I had.”
When at full staff, the city police department consists of four officers and the chief. Just recently, the department was down to just two active officers – Smith and Brandon Littrell. The open spots included Coker (out of town) and Mark Graziano (back injury). The fifth spot became vacant with Teske’s departure.
Smith, who has worked for the police department since July 2004, said he had never seen the force get down to just two officers.
“In fact, we’ve never been down to three that I can remember,” Smith said. “We’re actually not down to three because Clay is still here. We’ve been down to four several times but never just two out on the street.”
When Smith and Littrell were the only active officers for a couple of weeks, each worked a 12-hour shift. In times of shortage when Coker is available, he will join the shift rotation.
Coker is expected to return from the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., around Dec. 11, Smith said. Coker is using comp and vacation time to attend the training.
“It’s a personal gain for him … but it’s good and it doesn’t hurt to have that for training,” Berget said. “Yes, we’ll benefit but the cost (of paying his salary during training) was just too much for a small community to bear.”
The Libby department is part of a state testing consortium and a new hire could be on its way through that process. The next testing date is Dec. 10 in Kalispell.
“It’s a conglomeration of cities … 20 of us that are part of it,” Smith said. “Instead of just testing singularly, they made a consortium for everybody that wants to go into entry-level police work.”
The testing is for individuals with no prior police experience. During the process, applicants are asked where they may want to work.
“From what I understand, we should probably be getting four or five applicants that will be interested,” Smith said. “Hopefully, they’ll pass the test.”
The city hopes to build a pool of potential officers for hire.
“It’s nice to have a long list of individuals,” Berget said. “We’ve had some real interest from a lot of good, local people.”
Berget indicated that the recent new hire could end up serving in a temporary role, so it’s possible that a second vacancy on the police force could be back soon.