March 10, 2011
03/11/10 Marshall County Sheriff Tom Chamberlin appeared before the Marshall County Commissioners this week to seek approval to fill three vacancies in this department. The positions to be filled are those vacated by Ward Byers, Jordan Rans and Rick Kanarr.
Chamberlin explained that the hiring process takes about 5 months. The department has been operating under its allotted level of 17 officers and they had begun accepting applications for the openings in November.
As a new Sheriff Chamberlin has decided to try and operate the department with two detectives instead of the normal three, noting that not filling the Detective Sergeant position but using that person as a patrol officer will save the County about $2,000 yearly. His goal is to see if the department could provide better service on calls and still function efficiently with only two detectives.
Four applicants had final interviews Tuesday night with the Merit Board. Merit Board members include Dr. John Bottorff, Bud Treat, Mark Aker, Mark Bluebaugh, and Tom Black. Three of the members are selected by the Sheriff and 2 are chosen by County merit officers.
Conditional offers of employment were given to Jonathon Bryant, Brandon Cooper, and Travis O’Neal.
The Sheriff explained that the training process would be a minimum period of five months and that realistically it would be a year before the officers were patrolling the county highways on their own unless they have already attend the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.