The Maryville Police Department swore in three new officers to its ranks Dec. 22. These three new officers are Isaiah Bruley, Ian Long and Jacob Ferris. Maryville Chief of Police Mike Stolte said the goal is to be fully staffed by the end of the year.
“We're a smaller department. You add three brand new officers to the department, that kind of shakes it up a little bit,” Stolte said. “(I) want to kind of let that smooth out a little bit, and then I'll start looking in to fill in that last position, and hopefully we'll be fully staffed by the end of the year. Hopefully we'll be fully staffed by the end of the year. That's the goal.”
While the officers have already joined the department, there is still much more training to be done. Each new officer is assigned to an individual field training officer, with whom they will train around the community for four to seven months. Once the officers are fully trained, the department will begin searching for the final position.
All of these officers have small-town backgrounds, some even being from Maryville. Maryville-native Jacob Ferris is one of the newly sworn-in officers. He is taking online classes at Northwest, pursuing a degree in business administration and a minor in criminal justice. Ferris said one thing he would like to change in Maryville is the perception people have of police officers.
“I feel like a lot of people maybe have bad views of police officers, so I would like to change that,” Ferris said. “I want people to know who I am, that I'm there for them (and) that they can trust law enforcement.”
With the addition of new officers, Stolte said the community will see more involvement from the police in the community. Stolte said instead of seeing officers tied down to computers for hours, officers can be out patrolling and answering calls from citizens.
Stolte said he enjoys bringing in new, excited officers who are ready to learn and participate in the community because it reminds him of when he first came out of the academy. Stolte said that while the job is challenging, there is a lot to learn.
“I tell them (the new officers) just to soak it all in,” Stolte said. “You need to have a solid foundation to really get off to a really good start to your career, and the more solid that foundation is, the better off they're going to be in the long run.”
