LIMA, OH (WLIO) - Lima made changes to their hiring practices for the police department to help bring some more experienced officers on board. The City council approved a letter of understanding with the police union’s blue unit to allow lateral hires in the department. Up to this point, an officer with experience from another department got hired at the same level as a new officer. Now officers will be able to keep their level of experience when they start work as a Lima Police officer. Last month, the city increased wages r for officers in the blue unit by $3 an hour, now with the hope is to make the Lima Police Department more attractive to even more officers.
“This ordinance allows us to bring in more experienced officers,” says Mayor Sharetta Smith. “The experience that they had in other departments will be able to count here in the city of Lima. So, we are happy. Again another historic move, showing our investments in safety services. But also a move to help make us more attractive to police officers through out the country to want to come to Lima and work in our department.”
Lima City Council is still down one council member. Thomas Jones was set to be sworn in Monday night, but that didn’t happen. After the meeting, the council went into executive session to further discuss the 5th ward council seat.
