By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
At the past few Great Bend City Council meetings, Police Chief Steve Haulmark has updated the governing body that the Police Department is four positions short of being fully staffed.
Haulmark said the city made a conditional offer to an individual a couple of weeks ago. The candidate is finishing testing and Haulmark is hopeful to offer him a permanent position soon. Last week, the police department held new recruit testing.
"Three people successfully passed the testing process as well as the interview process," said Haulmark. "They're moving into the background phase. There's two of them that we're pretty excited about."
In August 2022, Haulmark announced the Police Department was at full strength for the first time since 2018. At that time, the department was designed for 33 full-time commissioned police officers. Since then, the Police Department moved into a new 20,100 square-foot facility this past winter at the intersection of 12th Street and Baker Avenue.