CPD at full strength after hiring of 5 new officers

By Editor | April 23, 2024 |

By Devese “Dee” Ursery

COLLINSVILLE — The Collinsville Police Department filled several positions with multiple hires during the city council meeting.

During this past regular bimonthly Collinsville City Council meeting held on Apr.16, CPD swore in five new police officers to help bolster the force. The hirings technically has the police department at full strength, according to Major Brett Boerm.

According to Boerm this is the second time in over 20 years the CPD has hired five new officers at one time. He said there are no plans to hire any more officers and it wouldn’t happen unless someone else leaves.

“On paper it brings us to full staffing,” Boerm said. “We do have three officers that are currently out with duty related injuries and their returns are uncertain at this point.”

Four of the new officers are already certified police officers in other jurisdictions and join the Collinsville Police Department through the Accelerated Entry pathway program. The fifth officer will begin the police academy at Southwestern Illinois College next week and will return to the CPD upon graduation.

The Accelerated Entry pathway program was initiated in February of 2022. Candidates eligible for this program must be at least 21 years of age at the time of appointment and currently employed as a full-time certified law enforcement officer.

“The Accelerated Entry Pathway is a program that a lot of agencies have begun incorporating into their hiring processes as a way to streamline and get officers in the door and trained faster,” Boerm said. “What we’re bypassing by doing that is basically sending our officer to the police academy for four months by hiring an already trained police officer from another agency; that speeds things up quite a bit.”

According to Boerm, of the four certified new officers one is from Illinois, which makes his transfer a little easier because there is less red tape involved being that he is certified in Illinois. The other three would have to get waivers in order to transfer. It allows the department to get on the streets faster. The other three are from the St. Louis metropolitan area, so two from St. Louis City officers and one from St. Louis County.

“The others will still have to go through a lot of red tape getting their Police Academy to transfer to Illinois,” Boerm said. “We have to get a waiver for Illinois Academy and so that has to be evaluated by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standard Board, so it can still be a week or two before we see them in Field Training.”

Boerm said that field training lasts 14 weeks. It’s designed in four phases: step one is four weeks long; step two is four weeks long; step three is four weeks long. The fourth phase is called the ‘Shadow Period’ and that lasts two weeks.

“After they complete field training and are deemed ready for solo patrol they will do so immediately,” Boerm said.

The newest team members of the police force are: Christian Harris and Brian Etling both from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department serving three and two and a half years, respectively. Trenton Gallion served with the St. Louis County Police Department for approximately two and a half years. Remington Paris is from Mt. Vernon and he served nearly two and a half years at their department. Finally, Tristan Knapp joins our team after serving in the United States Marine Corps for four years.