MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — The Middletown Police Department is down seven officers. Five are on administrative leave, after a man was shot Monday by an officer. Two more are injured.
“We’re extremely short right now,” said Middletown Police Chief David Birk. “It puts a strain on not only the department but the officers, the dispatch, everybody’s working overtime, so we had to adjust some shifts and move some people around to make sure we have coverage in all the shifts.”
Birk said they currently have either 73 or 74 sworn police officers. He said they are allotted to have 76. Birk added some of their senior officers are working different beats to help cover.
“We moved a couple officers from day turns to 3 to 11s, and then we did have one officer that was coming to the end of the field training process. That officer was getting ready to be tested out on Friday, so we ended up testing that officer out earlier than Friday, so that gave us another position on day turns,” Birk said.
He said they have seven officers in field training, but they won’t be ready for a few months.
Middletown City Council Member Zack Ferrell said it’s encouraging that the department has seven trainees, but said it’s worrisome the department is short-staffed.
“It’s pretty concerning," Ferrell said. "Our police department is about 73, 74 officers right now, so when you’re missing 10% of your people especially when those people are out on the street, you know, call times, if you have a shooting, if you have an injury, when it takes an extra minute to get somewhere that sometimes is the difference between life and death."
Ferrell said the city council needs to look into more creative ways to hire police officers and look to recruit officers from other areas.
“The police are the back of the city. They protect us. Obviously everybody knows that, so we want to be here to support them,” Ferrell said. “We need all the help we can get whether it’s through state, federal, local, we need all the help we can get.”
Birk added one of his detectives will be retiring in June, meaning he will have three vacant positions in that unit.
However, he noted his injured officers have been able to help with work at the police station.
“We have the injured officers back doing light duty. I have one in detectives and any walk-ins that come into the police department he handles that walk in. That right there relieves an officer from having to come to the building and take the call in the lobby,” Birk said.
Sometimes Birk will even take calls.
“If we have to myself, my lieutenant, my deputy chief, step up and take calls if we have to,” he said.
Some people living in Middletown were surprised to hear their police department is short-staffed.
“It is kind of concerning, but I think with what I’ve seen with my own eyes with them patrolling they’ve been pretty heavy, so I don’t think I’m concerned about it,” Ryan Ortiz said.
Ortiz has lived in Middletown for 14 years and hopes the department will get back to full strength soon.
Birk noted the Butler County Sheriff has offered to help the department with staffing as long as they need it.
Birk said he anticipates the injured officers to return to their normal duties in four weeks. For the five on administrative leave, he expects they'll be out for a minimum of eight weeks.
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